(Non)perturbative gravity, nonlocality, and nice slices

TL;DR

The paper examines the limitations of perturbative gravity in high-energy and black hole scenarios, suggesting nonperturbative nonlocal effects may resolve issues like information loss in black holes.

Contribution

It highlights the failure of perturbative methods in certain gravitational regimes and proposes nonperturbative nonlocality as a potential solution.

Findings

Perturbative analysis breaks down at the Schwarzschild radius.

Standard semiclassical slices fail to account for information preservation.

Nonperturbative nonlocality may be essential for consistent quantum gravity.

Abstract

Perturbative dynamics of gravity is investigated for high energy scattering and in black hole backgrounds. In the latter case, a straightforward perturbative analysis fails, in a close parallel to the failure of the former when the impact parameter reaches the Schwarzschild radius. This suggests a flaw in a semiclassical description of physics on spatial slices that intersect both outgoing Hawking radiation and matter that has carried information into a black hole; such slices are instrumental in a general argument for black hole information loss. This indicates a possible role for the proposal that nonperturbative gravitational physics is intrinsically nonlocal.