The information loss problem and Hawking radiation as tunneling

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods addressing the black hole information loss problem, focusing on Hawking radiation as tunneling, and argues that black hole evaporation is a unitary process preserving pure states.

Contribution

It provides a detailed statistical interpretation of black hole entropy via quantum tunneling and demonstrates that black hole evaporation follows a unitary evolution, countering previous claims of information loss.

Findings

Black hole entropy can be interpreted statistically through tunneling probabilities.

Black hole evaporation is governed by a time-dependent Schrödinger equation.

Evaporation preserves pure states, indicating unitarity.

Abstract

In this paper, we review some methods that tried to solve the information loss problem. In particular, we revisit the solution based on Hawking radiation as tunneling, and provide a detailed statistical interpretation on the black hole entropy in terms of the quantum tunneling probability of Hawking radiation from the black hole. In addition, we show that black hole evaporation is governed by a time-dependent Schrodinger equation that sends pure states into pure states rather than into mixed states (Hawking had originally established that the final result would be mixed states). This is further confirmation of the fact that black hole evaporation is unitary.