Nothing is truly lost - Or is it?

Black hole information paradox:

Paradoxes have always been intriguing  and  frustrating  enough  to keep scientists  and  engineers up  for  days and  nights. They  are the kind  of puzzles that you  can’t help  but dive into, knowing  you are  going  to drown.  It  takes  an  intellectual journey  to solve it  and  doing  so  will definitely  be satisfying.  But here’s the catch: the solution  that you seem  to  arrive  at established into  today . And will challenge what  you this particular paradox know and what is already that we  are  going  to delve is a notch  above the rest for  those holes. My  dear space enthusiasts who  study,  I introduce to you

"The Black hole information paradox"

Before getting into the paradox, let’s see some basic topics that we need to know to fully grasp what it talks about. With that said, let me ask you a few questions: What are we made of? What are the things that are around you made of? Think about it before reading the next line. Did you think of ‘Atoms’? Or did you maybe think of ‘Subatomic particles’? Well, you are not wrong. But let me provide you with an interesting viewpoint by saying that we are just an “Arrangement providing a specific information” 

Conservation of Information: 

Everything around us is made of elementary particles. We are made of them too. These particles are fundamental. They are arranged in specific ways to form molecules, organs, and ultimately us as a whole. The arrangement of these particles provides information; in our case, “Human”. Information tells us what is what. We are different from each other as the information conveyed are unique (your hair colour, skin tone, and so on). This means that we are nothing but the arrangement of fundamental particles conveying information.  The arrangement is what changes and differentiates everything around us. Both a monkey and a water bottle are made of fundamental particles. So, are they both the same? 

No!  

Reason: They have different arrangements. So, they give different information and thus are not the same. 

Let’s about now ‘ participate in a  fun  thought experiment information’ !  Hypothetically, and  disintegrate  it  such  that t originally  orange let’s say  that to  understand  more I  take  an orange here  is no  more  evidence that it was .  Now you  have no  idea what it is.  So,  the information  seems  to  be lost. But if  all the fundamental  particles of that orange and  their properties like  position,  velocity  and  spin  are known,  scientists  c an  recreate that  object and  thus find  out that it was an  orange; at  least  theoretically.  Thus, information  is not truly  lost even  if  it  changes form. In the quantum  world (the  realm  of  atoms and  subatomic particles), Quantum  information  is conserved,  i.e. the information  can neither  be created  nor  destroyed.

Black  Hole : 

This  is a  region  in spacetime  where the matter  is highly  concentrated and  so  gravity  is very  strong.  The pull is so  strong  that even  light cannot escape it and  as it does not reflect light,  it  acts like an ideal black  body.

All the matter that crosses the event horizon is destroyed. The event horizon is the boundary of the black hole where the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light and according to Einstein's theory of special relativity, nothing can achieve that speed. So certain death awaits you if you cross it after being stretched vertically and compressed horizontally into noodles. Yep, I said noodles as you will be made into long thin shapes. This effect is called “Spaghettification”. Then you will reach the centre of the black hole which is called ‘gravitational singularity’. This region contains the entire mass and has infinite density. The space-time curvature is thus infinite. So, you will be crushed at the singularity and your mass will be added to the total mass of the black hole. This is certainly the worst way to die! The point to be taken from this is that ‘Black hole destroys everything that falls into it and there is no escape’. 

The emergence of the paradox and the theories that are trying to solve it :

When the black  hole  crushes and  destroys everything (making them into  the same  substance), the quantum information also seems to leave the universe. This is the point where the paradox emerges. We know that the quantum  information  is always conserved  but the black hole now challenges a fundamental concept in physics. Several theories are trying to solve this paradox and

here I will mention a few of them.

1.) It's just lost, Goodbye info!

   Information is irretrievably lost. Black holes are evaporating at an extremely slow rate particles and they lose mass by giving  away from their event horizon. But the studies show that the evaporating  particles are unrelated  to the information that it swallows. So, it might be that information is indeed completely.

2.) Holographic Principle: 

This  principle tells  a  sci-fi  sounding  theory. It  might seem hard to  believe but if  you  read it  with  an  open  m ind  it  does seem  like  a  very good  solution  candidate.  It  says that the quantum  information can be surface  of  the event horizon. stored or  encoded  in the 2D When  bodies fall  into  a  black hole,  its mass  increases  and  so  does the surface  area of  the event horizon.  So , more  space  is also  created  for the information  of the  bodies to  be encoded .  This  principle might change reality  as we  know it  and  challenge us  to look at things in  an entirely different perspective.  It  also  says  that maybe the boundary o f  the observable universe is also a  2D surface  that  contain s the information  about all  the 3D objects in  it.  So,  everything  is just a  holographic projection of  that information.  It  means that we  all are  just holograms. This  theory is utterly  fascinating! 

3.) Giving Birth to a Baby Universe: 

This  theory tells us  that quantum  information  is separated from  our  universe  and  stored in  a  baby  universe.  We cannot see or  interact with  it  but nevertheless ,it is there  and  not  lost. 

4.) Remnant  carrying  the last hope:

One of the theories suggests  that even  after  a black  hole evaporates completely,  a Plancksized  remnant  remains. This remnant contains all the quantum  information.  You  can think of  it as storing  all  your  countless  embarrassing  photos  and videos in  a  pen  drive or hard drive  ( with extremely  high memory storage capacity)  and  then  hiding  it  so  that no  one can view it,  including  yourself. 

5.) Wait and Escape! 

Information escapes out during the final stage of black hole evaporation. 

The End of our Journey:

 This paradox has been a well-known one, challenging the theory of relativity and the quantum world and the theories it holds. Many scientists all around the world are working on solving it. Being on this journey to solve this paradox, is quite fun and you, my readers will now agree with me on this one. The one thing we can say with certainty amongst all these theories filled with uncertainties is that arriving at the solution will be so mind-boggling that it might lead to another scientific revolution to be recorded in history. I hope I have explained it in a very simple and fun manner to spark all your curious minds. I say goodbye with a glimmer of hope that maybe one of you can solve this paradox. All the very best! 

- J.Jeevitha