Forwarded from the Cryptography list. Seriously interesting stuff, tap-dancing on the thin line between Physics and Metaphysics (evaporation of information - tell me that concept doesn't make your head hurt).
Udhay > What happens to the quantum information ingested by a black hole? In > 1997, > Thorne and Hawking argued that information swallowed by a black hole > is > forever hidden, despite the fact that these dense objects do emit a > peculiar kind of radiation and eventually evaporate. Preskill > countered > that for quantum mechanics to remain valid, the theory mandates that > the > information has to be released from the evaporating black hole in > some > fashion. Although Hawking conceded in 2004, the disagreement between > Preskill and Thorne still stands. > > Smolin and Oppenheim now find that one of the main assertions made > about > black holes may be flawed. It is often assumed that as the black hole > > evaporates, all of the information gets stored in the remnant until > the > very end, at which point the information is either released or else > disappears forever. Instead, Smolin and Oppenheim suggest that the > information is distributed among the quanta thatescape during > evaporation, > but is encrypted and thus effectively locked away. > > The catch is that it can only be accessed with the help of the quanta > > released when the black hole disappears, in much the same way as a > cryptographic key unlocks a coded message. The result offers a link > between > general relativity and quantum cryptography. � DV > > Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 081302 (2006). > > -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
