Hawking Radiation and Back-Reaction

TL;DR

This paper explores black hole evaporation and the possibility of stable remnants within a 1+1 dimensional gravity model, analyzing quantum information loss and the evolution constraints of black holes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed semi-classical analysis of black hole evaporation, demonstrating the existence of stable remnants and proving that decaying black holes cannot evolve into these remnants.

Findings

Stable zero-temperature remnants exist in the model.

Decaying black holes cannot evolve into stable remnants.

Quantum information loss may be less severe than expected.

Abstract

The puzzles of black hole evaporation can be studied in the simplified context of 1+1 dimensional gravity. The semi-classical equations of Callan, Giddings, Harvey and Strominger provide a consistent description of the evaporation process which we describe in detail. We consider the possibility that black hole evolution leads to massive stable remnants. We show that such zero temperature remnant solutions exist but we also prove that a decaying black hole cannot evolve into one of them. Finally we consider the issue of loss of quantum information behind the global event horizon which develops in these geometries. An analogy with a well known solvable system shows that there may be less to information than meets the eye.