In a recent lecture at the Hawking Radiation Conference hosted by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, the famed physicist and cosmologist took aim at the “information paradox.”
The “information paradox” and Hawking
The paradox itself stems from Eintein’s theory of general relativity which suggests that the physical information about material lost in a black hole is itself lost. This despite the fact quantum mechanics postulates that that information lives forever thus creating the paradox according to Mike Wall at Space.com.
However, the famed scientist working in conjunction with Harvard University’s Andrew Stromberg and Malcolm Perry of the University of Cambridge posit a new theory: the information never enters the black hole itself.
“I propose that the information is stored not in the interior of the black hole as one might expect, but in its boundary, the event horizon,” Hawking said.
There is a catch though, don’t expect to make any sense out of this information.
“The information is stored in a super translation of the horizon that the ingoing particles [from the source star] cause,” he continued. “The information about ingoing particles is returned, but in a chaotic and useless form. For all practical purposes the info is lost.”
The “Event horizon”
Hawking describes the event horizon as a line where or a shell around around a black hole that once passed all matter is drawn into by hole’s powerful gravity that even prevents light from escaping.
Hawking’s announcement, which drew both a large number of journalists and colleagues, came as part of a larger week-long conference on black holes hosted by Laurel Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics which featured some of the greatest thinkers in theoretical physics.
Portals into other universes
As Hawking finished his lecture he also pointed out the potential for black holes to be portals to other universes. So, if you find yourself in a black hole don’t lose hope about getting out, just getting home.
“The hole would need to be large, and if it was rotating, it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe,” Hawking said on Tuesday. “So, although I’m keen on spaceflight, I’m not going to try that.”
