An infalling observer in AdS/CFT

Kyriakos Papadodimas*, Suvrat Raju

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

251 Citations (Scopus)
454 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We describe the experience of an observer falling into a black hole using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In order to do this, we reconstruct the local bulk operators measured by the observer along his trajectory outside the black hole. We then extend our construction beyond the black hole horizon. We show that this is possible because of an effective doubling of the observables in the boundary theory, when it is in a pure state that is close to the thermal state. Our construction allows us to rephrase questions about information-loss and the structure of the metric at the horizon in terms of more familiar CFT correlators. It suggests that to precisely identify black-hole microstates, the observer would need to conduct measurements to an accuracy of e(-SBH). This appears to be inconsistent with the "fuzzball" proposal, and other recent proposals in which pure states in the ensemble of the black hole are represented by macroscopically distinct geometries. Furthermore, our description of the black hole interior in terms of CFT operators provides a natural realization of black hole complementarity and a method of preserving unitarity without "firewalls."

Original languageEnglish
Article number212
Number of pages73
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30-Oct-2013

Keywords

  • AdS-CFT Correspondence
  • Black Holes
  • 1/N Expansion
  • BLACK-HOLES
  • QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT
  • FIELD-THEORIES
  • STRING THEORY
  • COMPLEMENTARITY
  • MECHANICS
  • GRAVITY
  • SYSTEM

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