For a long time now researchers have believed that when a black hole dies, everything inside is completely gone forever. But a recent study proposes that information and everything else sucked into the event horizon isn't actually wiped out - but gradually leaks out throughout the later stages of the black hole's evaporation. Scientists united Hawking radiation with mathematical models and high-performance computers to generate a simulation displaying when information goes in and leaves a black hole.
The new study was published in the journal APS Physics few days ago. It was Stephen Hawking, some forty years ago, who proposed that black holes evaporate and shrink because they emit radiation. After that several question arose about the information and everything else inside the black hole – specifically where this all information goes when the black hole dies.
After many calculations, physicists suggested everything simply vanishes inside the black holes but this violates the very essential laws of physics.
Chris Adami and his colleague Kamil Bradler, University of Ottawa, have developed a new theory according to which information contained slowly leaks out while the black hole is evaporating.
This study counteracts a pretty old concept that it was impossible for all quantum information to stay secret inside the black hole even though it shrunk to minute sizes – meaning everything present inside the black hole would be destroyed.
So Chris Adami and his colleague Kamil Bradler just used Hawking's theory 'with a little twist'.
By means of mathematical tools and high-performance computers, scientists were able to simulated black holes over long periods of time and trace information outside the holes. Adami said:
“To perform this calculation, we had to guess how a black hole interacts with the Hawking radiation field that surrounds it. This is because there currently is no theory of quantum gravity that could suggest such an interaction. However, it appears we made a well-educated guess because our model is equivalent to Hawking's theory in the limit of fixed, unchanging black holes. While our model is just that—a model—we were able to show that any quantum interaction between black holes and Hawking radiation is very likely to have the same properties as our model”
