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Shark Space Science

Lasers May Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox 75

Posted by Soulskill from the is-there-any-problem-lasers-can't-solve dept.
astroengine writes: "In an effort to help solve the black hole information paradox that has immersed theoretical physics in an ocean of soul searching for the past two years, two researchers have thrown their hats into the ring with a novel solution: Lasers. Technically, we're not talking about the little flashy devices you use to keep your cat entertained, we're talking about the underlying physics that produces laser light and applying it to information that falls into a black hole. According to the researchers, who published a paper earlier this month to the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity (abstract), the secret to sidestepping the black hole information paradox (and, by extension, the 'firewall' hypothesis that was recently argued against by Stephen Hawking) lies in stimulated emission of radiation (the underlying physics that generates laser light) at the event horizon that is distinct from Hawking radiation, but preserves information as matter falls into a black hole."
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Lasers May Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox More

Lasers May Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox

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  • Backup your data now (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cryacin ( 657549 ) on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @07:39PM (#46579307)
    Throw your storage devices into a black hole, and make sure that your data gets preserved for eternity.

    Coming soon, the ability to retrieve the data from the event horizon should it be required again.

    • Re:Backup your data now (Score:4, Funny)

      by Moblaster ( 521614 ) on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @08:02PM (#46579503)
      Why go through all that trouble? If your hard drive had anything important on it to begin with, it would equal 42.

    • Re:Backup your data now (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @08:13PM (#46579583)

      There are many Hard Scifi novels in which data storage is kept on the event horizon of a black-hole, or more commonly on a neutron star. This isn't a new idea. And before you say "A Neutron star isn't a black hole!" Do the math... it might as well be. Just because the energy required to leave it's gravitational field isn't infinite doesn't mean it's anywhere within the realm of possible to achieve.

    • used to be the preferred method of data reduction.

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You're missing an argument and losing one simultaneously.

      • The theory itself states that information of what enters a black hole is itself retained, and due to the time dilation characteristics caused by the extreme gravity, said information would be present for eternity, even after the last hydrogen atom decays and the universe becomes a vast wasteland. While the matter is long gone, the energy remains and thermodynamics teaches us that the two are interchangeable. As such, the parent is making a facetious argument about how should a hard drive be thrown into a bl

      • mv -f * /dev/null

    • Coming soon, the ability to retrieve the data from the event horizon should it be required again.

      Oh sure, YOU can get your data from the event horizon... but YOU can not get back FROM the event horizon! So you need to pack a really strong USB cable...

    • Your storage infinite device: 1) create a radio receiver that transcribes the incoming signal into a laser beam. 2) Drop it into a black hole. The data in the beam now becomes infinitely compressed as it tries to get to the event horizion. 3) Send it all your data. 4) pr0fet! Just make sure the EULA states that it is to be used only for perminant storage (as nothing ever comes back out of a black hole.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Throw your storage devices into a black hole, and make sure that your data gets preserved for eternity.

        Coming soon, the ability to retrieve the data from the event horizon should it be required again.

      Or, down on earth...

      It's utterly trivial to write a backup program. Anyone can do it.

      The hard part's writing the program to restore from that backup.

  • Lasers, is there anything they can't do? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by newcastlejon ( 1483695 ) on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @08:21PM (#46579637)
    It's probably nothing to do with black holes, but one of the pioneers of solid-state lasers was on The Life Scientific [bbc.co.uk] this morning. If it's available in your area it's well worth a listen.
  • "Throw your storage devices into a black hole and preserve your information forever." No backups necessary? So, how do you retrieve that file you lost that says you are the inheritor of a serious fortune? :-)

    • You just get it from the Hawking radiation. There's a bit of math involved and we aren't quite capable of actually doing it yet right now, but if you just wait in the vicinity of the black hole, mankind will figure it out for you in no time at all.

      • but if you just wait in the vicinity of the black hole, mankind will figure it out for you in no time at all.

        Sounds like a good place to send the 'B Ark'. ;-)

  • The information absorbed from the matter that falls into the black hole must correspond to something existent, and given that nothing can be created or destroyed, even if something passes the event horizon, the corresponding information must remain. There must be an infinity of information dwelling in the nothingness of the cosmos! How else would we be able to be philodoxers? Since philodoxy cannot conceive of nothing, it necessarily follows that, in virtue of the mass doxaston, that there is an infinity of

  • Is there any empirical evidence that information can't be destroyed?

    If not, what would be the consequences of just ditching the law(?) that creates the paradox?

  • Any particle that contains mass and energy (so basically all of them) that passes into a black hole does so at a slight angle. That changes the rotation just slightly on one direction. That alone may preserve information about what fell in. That theory is 10+ years old and still the most correct and provable. People just don't like how there's a 2 dimensional arc of possible entry vectors for any given particle so its "information" can't be reversed flawlessly to one single answer.
  • Sharks with hard drives riding laser beams into black holes
  • From the paper: "Note that as 2m anti-particles are stimulated behind the horizon in region II, particle number is conserved. We should also point out that because the incident particle carries energy and momentum, the black hole does not have to donate mass in order to allow the emission of stimulated pairs, as it does for virtual pairs." While stimulated emission of photons plays a big role in this, it is not really the physics of lasers.

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