eli5 what is the information paradox in physics?
In: Physics
It’s a paradox surrounding black holes. One of the premises of physics is that information cannot be destroyed. This information they talk about is the waveform/wave function of the quantum particles entering it. But a black hole is just a singularity with a boundary around it. All matter brought in is condensed into a single point which should not be possible with the current quantum model.
With all particles occupying the same space their waveforms are collapsed and lost
Another way to think about it is the waveform of the particle encodes it’s entire time-line, but a black hole breaks this by Collapsing the waveform of the particle
According to quantum physics information can not be destroyed. If you drop a vase and it shatters then if you would measure the exact quantum state of the shards you should (in principle) be able to reconstruct what the vase looked like. You can scramble information to make it hard to read, but it’s impossible to get rid of completely
But black holes appear to destroy information. From the outside it’s fully defined by it’s mass (and electrical charge, and rotation). So if you drop in a book or a stone of the same weight the state of the black hole just increases by that mass and it’s impossible to find out what dropped in.
There are many suggested solutions to solve this paradox. For example the black hole might release that information in hawking radiation over a very long timespan
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