{"title":"Beyond the Quantum Membrane Paradigm: A Philosophical Analysis of the Structure of Black Holes in Full QG","authors":"Enrico Cinti, Marco Sanchioni","doi":"10.1007/s10701-024-00758-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper presents a philosophical analysis of the structure of black holes, focusing on the event horizon and its fundamental status. While black holes have been at the centre of countless paradoxes arising from the attempt to merge quantum mechanics and general relativity, recent experimental discoveries have emphasised their importance as objects for the development of Quantum Gravity. In particular, the statistical mechanical underpinning of black hole thermodynamics has been a central research topic. The Quantum Membrane Paradigm, proposed by Wallace (Stud Hist Philos Sci Part B 66:103-117, 2019), posits a real membrane made of black hole microstates at the black hole horizon to provide a statistical mechanical understanding of black hole thermodynamics from an exterior observer’s point of view. However, we argue that the Quantum Membrane Paradigm is limited to low-energy Quantum Gravity and needs to be modified to avoid reference to geometric notions, such as the event horizon, which presumably do not make sense in the non-spatiotemporal context of full Quantum Gravity. Our proposal relies on the central dogma of black hole physics. It considers recent developments, such as replica wormholes and entanglement wedge reconstruction, to provide a new framework for understanding the nature of black hole horizons in full Quantum Gravity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":569,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Physics","volume":"54 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10701-024-00758-6.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Foundations of Physics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-024-00758-6","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper presents a philosophical analysis of the structure of black holes, focusing on the event horizon and its fundamental status. While black holes have been at the centre of countless paradoxes arising from the attempt to merge quantum mechanics and general relativity, recent experimental discoveries have emphasised their importance as objects for the development of Quantum Gravity. In particular, the statistical mechanical underpinning of black hole thermodynamics has been a central research topic. The Quantum Membrane Paradigm, proposed by Wallace (Stud Hist Philos Sci Part B 66:103-117, 2019), posits a real membrane made of black hole microstates at the black hole horizon to provide a statistical mechanical understanding of black hole thermodynamics from an exterior observer’s point of view. However, we argue that the Quantum Membrane Paradigm is limited to low-energy Quantum Gravity and needs to be modified to avoid reference to geometric notions, such as the event horizon, which presumably do not make sense in the non-spatiotemporal context of full Quantum Gravity. Our proposal relies on the central dogma of black hole physics. It considers recent developments, such as replica wormholes and entanglement wedge reconstruction, to provide a new framework for understanding the nature of black hole horizons in full Quantum Gravity.
本文从哲学角度分析了黑洞的结构,重点是事件视界及其基本地位。尽管黑洞一直是试图将量子力学和广义相对论合并而产生的无数悖论的中心,但最近的实验发现强调了黑洞作为量子引力发展对象的重要性。特别是,黑洞热力学的统计力学基础一直是一个核心研究课题。华莱士(Stud Hist Philos Sci Part B 66:103-117,2019)提出的量子膜范式(Quantum Membrane Paradigm)假定在黑洞视界处有一个由黑洞微态构成的真实膜,从外部观察者的角度提供了对黑洞热力学的统计力学理解。然而,我们认为量子膜范式仅限于低能量子引力,需要加以修改,以避免引用事件视界等几何概念,而这些概念在非时空背景下的完全量子引力中大概是没有意义的。我们的建议依赖于黑洞物理学的核心教条。它考虑了最近的发展,如复制虫洞和纠缠楔重建,为理解全量子引力中黑洞视界的性质提供了一个新框架。
期刊介绍:
The conceptual foundations of physics have been under constant revision from the outset, and remain so today. Discussion of foundational issues has always been a major source of progress in science, on a par with empirical knowledge and mathematics. Examples include the debates on the nature of space and time involving Newton and later Einstein; on the nature of heat and of energy; on irreversibility and probability due to Boltzmann; on the nature of matter and observation measurement during the early days of quantum theory; on the meaning of renormalisation, and many others.
Today, insightful reflection on the conceptual structure utilised in our efforts to understand the physical world is of particular value, given the serious unsolved problems that are likely to demand, once again, modifications of the grammar of our scientific description of the physical world. The quantum properties of gravity, the nature of measurement in quantum mechanics, the primary source of irreversibility, the role of information in physics – all these are examples of questions about which science is still confused and whose solution may well demand more than skilled mathematics and new experiments.
Foundations of Physics is a privileged forum for discussing such foundational issues, open to physicists, cosmologists, philosophers and mathematicians. It is devoted to the conceptual bases of the fundamental theories of physics and cosmology, to their logical, methodological, and philosophical premises.
The journal welcomes papers on issues such as the foundations of special and general relativity, quantum theory, classical and quantum field theory, quantum gravity, unified theories, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, cosmology, and similar.