Constraints on Black Hole Remnants

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical constraints on black hole remnants, focusing on their potential infinite pair production issues and the conditions under which such instabilities can be avoided within effective field theories.

Contribution

It investigates the structure of effective theories for black hole remnants and analyzes conditions to prevent infinite pair production, challenging previous assumptions about suppression mechanisms.

Findings

Infinite remnant production is not suppressed by large internal volumes.

Criteria for avoiding infinite production depend on specific couplings in the effective theory.

Strong coupling scenarios may prevent infinite pair production, but this remains an open question.

Abstract

One possible fate of information lost to black holes is its preservation in black hole remnants. It is argued that a type of effective field theory describes such remnants (generically referred to as informons). The general structure of such a theory is investigated and the infinite pair production problem is revisited. A toy model for remnants clarifies some of the basic issues; in particular, infinite remnant production is not suppressed simply by the large internal volumes as proposed in cornucopion scenarios. Criteria for avoiding infinite production are stated in terms of couplings in the effective theory. Such instabilities remain a problem barring what would be described in that theory as a strong coupling conspiracy. The relation to euclidean calculations of cornucopion production is sketched, and potential flaws in that analysis are outlined. However, it is quite plausible that pair production of ordinary black holes (e.g. Reissner Nordstrom or others) is suppressed due to strong effective couplings. It also remains an open possibility that a microscopic dynamics can be found yielding an appropriate strongly coupled effective theory of neutral informons without infinite pair production.