Violations of the Equivalence Principle by a Nonlocally Reconstructed Vacuum at the Black Hole Horizon

Abstract

If information escapes from an evaporating black hole, then field modes just outside the horizon must be thermally entangled with distant Hawking radiation. But for an infalling observer to find empty space at the horizon, the same modes would have to be entangled with the black hole interior. Thus, unitarity appears to require a "firewall" at the horizon. Identifying the interior with the distant radiation promises to resolve the entanglement conflict and restore the vacuum. But the map must adjust for any interactions, or else the firewall will reappear if the Hawking radiation scatters off the cosmic microwave background. Such a map produces a "frozen vacuum," a phenomenon that is arguably worse than a firewall. An infalling observer is unable to excite the vacuum near the horizon. This allows the horizon to be locally detected and so violates the equivalence principle.