Entropy localization and extensivity in the semiclassical black hole evaporation

Abstract

I aim to quantify the distribution of information in the Hawking radiation and inside the black hole in the semiclassical evaporation process. The structure of relativistic quantum field theory does not allow one to define a localized entropy unambiguously, but rather forces one to consider the shared information (mutual information) between two different regions of space-time. Using this tool, I first show that the entropy of a thermal gas at the Unruh temperature underestimates the actual amount of (shared) information present in a region of the Rindler space. Then, I analyze the mutual information between the black hole and the late time radiation region. A well-known property of the entropy implies that this is monotonically increasing with time. This means that in the semiclassical picture it is not possible to recover the eventual purity of the initial state in the final Hawking radiation through subtle correlations established during the whole evaporation period, no matter the interactions present in the theory. I find extensivity of the entropy as a consequence of a reduction to a two dimensional conformal problem in a simple approximation. However, the extensivity of information in the radiation region in a full four dimensional calculation seems not to be guaranteed on general grounds. I also analyze the localization of shared information inside the black hole finding that a large amount of it is contained in a small, approximately flat region of space-time near the point where the horizon begins. This gives place to large violations of the entropy bounds. I show that this problem is not eased by backscattering effects and argue that a breaking of conformal invariance is necessary to delocalize the entropy. Finally, I indicate that the mutual information could lead to a way to understand the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy which does not require a drastic reduction in degrees of freedom in order to regulate the entanglement entropy. On the contrary, a large number of field degrees of freedom at high energies giving place to a Hagedorn transition implements a natural distance cutoff in the mutual information, which may in consequence turn out to be bounded.