Q Seminar: Joe Polchinski (KITP), 'Black Holes: Complementarity or Firewalls?'

Event Date: 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm

Event Location: 

  • 2250 Elings Hall
  • UCSB
  • Santa Barbara
  • CA 93106

Event Price: 

Free

Event Contact: 

Sean Fraer
Email: seanfr@microsoft.com
Phone: 805-893-8818

The black hole information paradox presents a sharp conflict between quantum mechanics and locality. AdS/CFT duality indicates that it is locality gives way, but the details have never been clear. Recent developments have sharpened the question, in that it appears that three widely believed statements cannot all be true: (i) the Hawking radiation is in a pure state, (ii) the information carried by the radiation is emitted from the region near the horizon, with low energy effective field theory valid outside the horizon, and (iii) the infalling observer encounters nothing unusual at the horizon.