Hawking radiation from decoherence

TL;DR

This paper argues that Hawking radiation's thermal nature results from decoherence, suggesting that the information-loss paradox is avoided since pure states remain pure in closed systems, with implications for black hole physics and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a decoherence-based explanation for Hawking radiation's thermal properties, challenging traditional views on information loss in black holes.

Findings

Hawking radiation arises from decoherence effects.

Pure states remain pure in closed systems, avoiding information loss.

The arguments extend to general scenarios beyond Schwarzschild black holes.

Abstract

It is argued that the thermal nature of Hawking radiation arises solely due to decoherence. Thereby any information-loss paradox is avoided because for closed systems pure states remain pure. The discussion is performed for a massless scalar field in the background of a Schwarzschild black hole, but the arguments should hold in general. The result is also compared to and contrasted with the situation in inflationary cosmology.