The secret structure of the gravitational vacuum

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the quantum gravity vacuum contains hierarchical, correlated fluctuations called vecros, which are linked to black hole microstates and are essential for resolving the black hole information paradox.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice model of vecro fluctuations, demonstrating their role in black hole microstates and the information paradox resolution.

Findings

Vecro fluctuations form a hierarchical structure in quantum gravity vacuum.

Transition from vecros to fuzzballs occurs at black hole formation threshold.

Models lacking vecro correlations cannot resolve the information paradox.

Abstract

We argue that the vacuum of quantum gravity must contain a hierarchical structure of correlations spanning all length scales. These correlated domains (called `vecros') correspond to virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates. Larger fluctuations are suppressed by their larger action, but this suppression is offset by a correspondingly larger phase space of possible configurations. We give an explicit lattice model of these vecro fluctuations, noting how their distribution changes as the gravitational pull of a star becomes stronger. At the threshold of formation of a closed trapped surface, these virtual fluctuations transition into on-shell black hole microstates (fuzzballs). Fuzzballs radiate from their surface like normal bodies, resolving the information paradox. We also argue that any model without vecro-type extended vacuum correlations cannot resolve the paradox.