Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox Finally Solved? What New Studies Claim

Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox Finally Solved? What New Studies Claim
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If you like black holes (well, as long as you only see them in sci-fi movies such as Interstellar), surely you’ve heard about Stephen Hawking’s paradox regarding these cosmic objects. Since the existence of black holes was first theorized back in 1783 by the English country priest John Mitchell, scientists knew that they were dealing with the most mysterious cosmic objects.

Hawking’s paradox was saying that how come black holes can destroy information about what had formed them when one of the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics says that it’s possible to mathematically reverse any process in physics?

Time to bet on the “quantum hair”

According to two new studies that Phys.org tells the world about, the so-called “quantum hair” could be the answer to Stephen Hawking’s conundrum about black holes. The idea provides a way for preserving information as a black hole collapses.

Scientists learned that black holes could hold information about their formation. They concluded that the matter collapsing into a black hole would leave a mark known as a “quantum hair” in the gravitational field.

Roberto Casadio, a professor of Theoretical Physics from the University of Bologna, explained more about the “quantum hair,” as Phys.org quotes:

A crucial aspect is that black holes are formed by the collapse of compact objects and then, according to the quantum theory, there is no absolute separation between the interior and the exterior of the black hole,

In the classical theory, the horizon acts as a perfect one-way membrane which does not let anything out and the exterior is therefore the same for all black holes of a given mass. This is the classical no-hair theorem,

However, in the quantum theory, the state of the matter that collapses and forms the black hole continues to affect the state of the exterior, albeit in a way that is compatible with present experimental bounds. This is what is known as ‘quantum hair.’


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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