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arXiv:2601.09820

Quantum Optical Inspired Models for Unitary Black Hole Evaporation

Paul M. Alsing

gr-qcquant-phSubmitted Jan 14, 2026• Announced Jan 16, 2026
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Abstract

In this work, we describe optically inspired models for unitary black hole (BH) evaporation. The goal of these models are (i) to be operationally simple, (ii) approximately preserve the thermal nature of the emitted Hawking Radiation (HR), and (iii) attempt to reproduce the Page Curve that purports that information flows forth from the BH when it has evaporated to approximately half its initial mass. We concentrate on modeling the BH as a single mode squeezed state successively interacting, by means of beam splitters and squeezers, with vacuum modes near the horizon, giving rise to entangled pairs representing the external Hawking radiation and its partner particle inside the horizon. Since all states and operations are Gaussian throughout, we use a symplectic formalism to track the evolution of the composite system through the evolving means and variances of their quadrature operators. This allows us to easily compute correlations and entanglement between the BH and the HR, as well as calculate correlations between the BH at early and late times.

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In this work, we describe optically inspired models for unitary black hole (BH) evaporation. The goal of these models are (i) to be operationally simple, (ii) approximately preserve the thermal nature of the emitted Hawking Radiation (HR), and (iii) attempt to reproduce the Page Curve that purports that information flows forth from the BH when it has evaporated to approximately half its initial mass. We concentrate on modeling the BH as a single mode squeezed state successively interacting, by means of beam splitters and squeezers, with vacuum modes near the horizon, giving rise to entangled pairs representing the external Hawking radiation and its partner particle inside the horizon. Since all states and operations are Gaussian throughout, we use a symplectic formalism to track the evolution of the composite system through the evolving means and variances of their quadrature operators. This allows us to easily compute correlations and entanglement between the BH and the HR, as well as calculate correlations between the BH at early and late times.
In this paper we extend the investigation of Adami and Ver Steeg [Class. Quantum Grav. \textbf{31}, 075015 (2014)] to treat the process of black hole particle emission effectively as the analogous quantum optical process of parametric down conversion (PDC) with a dynamical (depleted vs. non-depleted) `pump' source mode which models the evaporating black hole (BH) energy degree of freedom. We investigate both the short time (non-depleted pump) and long time (depleted pump) regimes of the quantum state and its impact on the Holevo channel capacity for communicating information from the far past to the far future in the presence of Hawking radiation. The new feature introduced in this work is the coupling of the emitted Hawking radiation modes through the common black hole `source pump' mode which phenomenologically represents a quantized energy degree of freedom of the gravitational field. This (zero-dimensional) model serves as a simplified arena to explore BH particle production/evaporation and back-action effects under an explicitly unitary evolution which enforces quantized energy/particle conservation. Within our analogous quantum optical model we examine the entanglement between two emitted particle/anti-particle and anti-particle/particle pairs coupled via the black hole (BH) evaporating `pump' source. We also analytically and dynamically verify the `Page information time' for our model which refers to the conventionally held belief that the information in the BH radiation becomes significant after the black hole has evaporated half its initial energy into the outgoing radiation. Lastly, we investigate the effect of BH particle production/evaporation on two modes in the exterior region of the BH event horizon that are initially maximally entangled, when one mode falls inward and interacts with the black hole, and the other remains forever outside and non-interacting.
Abstract In this paper we extend the investigation of Adami and Ver Steeg (2014 Class. Quantum Grav. 31 075015 ) to treat the process of black hole (BH) particle emission effectively as the analogous quantum optical process of parametric down conversion with a dynamical (depleted versus non-depleted) ‘pump’ source mode which models the evaporating BH energy degree of freedom. We investigate both the short time (non-depleted pump) and long time (depleted pump) regimes of the quantum state and its impact on the Holevo channel capacity for commu.nicating information from the far past to the far future in the presence of Hawking radiation. The new feature introduced in this work is the coupling of the emitted Hawking radiation modes through the common BH ‘source pump’ mode which phenomenologically represents a quantized energy degree of freedom of the gravitational field. This (zero-dimensional) model serves as a simplified arena to explore BH particle production/evaporation and back-action effects under an explicitly unitary evolution that enforces quantized energy/particle conservation. Within our analogous quantum optical model we examine the entanglement between two emitted particle/anti-particle and anti-particle/particle pairs coupled via the BH evaporating ‘pump’ source. We also analytically and dynamically verify the ‘Page information time’ for our model, which refers to the conventionally held belief that the information in the BH radiation becomes significant after the BH has evaporated half its initial energy into the outgoing radiation. Lastly, we investigate the effect of BH particle production/evaporation on two modes in the exterior region of the BH event horizon that are initially maximally entangled, when one mode falls inward and interacts with the BH, and the other remains forever outside and non-interacting.
The complete evaporation of black holes, as a natural endpoint of Hawking radiation, gives rise to the black hole information paradox, which fundamentally challenges the principles of unitarity and information conservation in quantum mechanics. Although the AdS/CFT correspondence indicates that information is preserved during black hole evaporation, the precise mechanism by which it is recovered from the Hawking radiation remains an open question. To explore a potential resolution, we investigate information transfer in a spin-chain model featuring an effective horizon realized via position-dependent couplings within an XY spin chain. We derive and demonstrate Page curve-like behavior, and analyze the transmission of quantum resources, such as entanglement and coherence, across the effective horizon. Our results show that quantum resources initially localized within an interior subsystem can be transferred to the exterior via particle radiation through the horizon. This study provides a novel perspective from quantum simulation on how information may escape from black holes, thereby contributing to the further understanding of the black hole information paradox.
Abstract We present an analytical formulation of the recent one-shot decoupling model of Bràdler and Adami (2015 arXiv: 1505.0284 ) and compute the resulting ‘Page information’ curves, for the reduced density matrices for the evaporating black hole (BH) internal degrees of freedom, and emitted Hawking radiation pairs entangled across the horizon. We argue that BH evaporation/particle production has a very close analogy to the laboratory process of spontaneous parametric down conversion, when the pump is allowed to deplete.
Abstract We consider a quantum circuit model describing the evaporation process of black holes. We specifically examine the behavior of the multipartite entanglement represented by this model, and find that the entanglement structure depends on the black hole mass M and the frequency of the Hawking radiation ω . For sufficiently small values of , the black hole and the radiation system becomes a separable state after the Page time and a firewall-like structure appears. On the contrary, for larger values of , the entanglement between the black hole and the radiation is not lost. These behaviors imply that owing to the monogamy property of the multipartite entanglement, low frequency modes of the Hawking radiation destroy the quantum correlation between the black hole and the emitted Hawking radiation.
Abstract We reexamine the quantum circuit model of black hole evaporation proposed in a previous work (Class. Quantum Grav. 35, 235013, 2018) [1]. This tripartite model incorporates the following systems: black hole ( BH\textbf{BH}BH BH ), just radiation ( JR\textbf{JR}JR JR ), and early radiation ( ER\textbf{ER}ER ER ). We apply a scrambling unitary matrix with a single parameter θ\theta θ θ to the ground state of the qubits in infalling matter toward a black hole in order to generate initial qubit states of the black hole that are more general than those in [1]. Specifically, the scrambling unitary matrix reduces to no scrambling and maximum scrambling when θ=0\theta =0θ=0 θ = 0 and θ=π/2\theta =\pi /2θ=π/2 θ = π / 2 , respectively. Our aim is to explore the role of quantum monogamy in the firewall formation between the black hole and radiation. In this model, entanglement and firewall formation depend on the black hole mass M and the frequency of Hawking radiation ω\omega ω ω . For the initial state with θ=π/2\theta =\pi /2θ=π/2 θ = π / 2 , a firewall emerges at an earlier stage of the evolution than with θ=0\theta =0θ=0 θ = 0 . We also find that a firewall structure emerges between BH\textbf{BH}BH BH and JR\textbf{JR}JR JR , and that the information is carried away by radiation for all values of MωM\omega Mω M ω , provided that θ\theta θ θ lies within a certain analytically determined range. Following unitary gate dynamics, the initial black hole qubit state can be retrieved from its imprint on the final radiation state, which was originally hidden behind the black hole’s horizon. These results may provide insight into the properties of multipartite entanglement due to the different initial states in the evolution of a quantum circuit model for black hole evaporation.