BLACK HOLES: Portals to the Holy Grail of Theoretical Physics?

Portal to the Holy Grail?

•The source of the problem lies at the interface between

the microscopic (quantum mechanics) and the

macroscopic (gravity)

• The physical laws of these two regimes have yet to be

successfully unified.

• To resolve the information loss problem we need

to know how to apply the rules of quantum mechanics

directly to black holes

The Quantum Theory of Gravity

String Theory?

Loop Quantum Gravity


	So clearly our laws of physics are breaking down. I already said this happens at the center of a black hole, so why is this more of a problem? As long as the "tear in the fabric of spacetime" was hidden below the event horizon of a black hole, it did not ruin the predictability of things that went on outside. However, now we have a breakdown of predictibility, a loss of information, that essentially affects the rest of the universe. Moreover, the problem is not occurring at absurdly high temperatures and pressures that exist at the center of the black hole. Its source is just outside the horizon, and has to do with the interplay between macroscopic physics, and the microscopic processes that cause the evaporation. Thus the laws of physics are breaking down a lot sooner than we had any right to expect. To resolve this problem we have to understand this evaporation process, and ultimately, we need to understand how gravity and quantum mechanics are to be unified into a single theory. The strange behaviour of black holes is providing us with value clues that will ultimately lead us to the Holy Grail of theoretical physics: a correct and consistent unification of gravity with the other interactions. The currently popular candidates for such a theory are string theory and loop quantum gravity. Both theories are based on similar fundamental geometrical objects, namely one dimensional loops or strings, but the technical details are quite different.