The story of the back hole information paradox

Some 40 years ago Bekenstein argued that black holes should have an enormous entropy. Shortly thereafter, Hawking showed that black holes evaporate in a way that violates quantum mechanics. The latter result has been a long standing problem, known as the black hole information paradox. Recent results in string theory has shown that the microstates corresponding to Bekenstein's entropy are 'fuzzballs' that do not have a regular horizon; the horizon of the hole arises as an emergent statistical concept. Further, the large entropy of these states leads to a violation of the semiclassical approximation at the horizon of a black hole; this alters Hawking's computation and provides a resolution of the information paradox.



 

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