Time dependent Schrödinger equation for black hole evaporation: No information loss

Abstract

In 1976 S. Hawking claimed that “Because part of the information about the state of the system is lost down the hole, the final situation is represented by a density matrix rather than a pure quantum state”.11Verbatim from Ref. [2]. This was the starting point of the popular “black hole (BH) information paradox”.In a series of papers, together with collaborators, we naturally interpreted BH quasi-normal modes (QNMs) in terms of quantum levels discussing a model of excited BH somewhat similar to the historical semi-classical Bohr model of the structure of a hydrogen atom. Here we explicitly write down, for the same model, a time dependent Schrödinger equation for the system composed by Hawking radiation and BH QNMs. The physical state and the correspondent wave function are written in terms of a unitary evolution matrix instead of a density matrix. Thus, the final state results to be a pure quantum state instead of a mixed one. Hence, Hawking’s claim is falsified because BHs result to be well defined quantum mechanical systems, having ordered, discrete quantum spectra, which respect ’t Hooft’s assumption that Schrödinger equations can be used universally for all dynamics in the universe. As a consequence, information comes out in BH evaporation in terms of pure states in a unitary time dependent evolution.In Section 4 of this paper we show that the present approach permits also to solve the entanglement problem connected with the information paradox.