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arXiv:2610.28185

Black Holes are about Quantum Information

Aude Corbeel, Sebastian De Haro

physics.hist-phhep-thquant-phSubmitted Oct 20, 2026• Announced Oct 21, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We review and analyse quantum information-theoretic approaches to black hole evaporation that purport to bring us closer to a resolution of the black hole information paradox. Our focus is on the Page-time paradox and on the contribution of the Hayden-Preskill model to understanding information release under the assumption of unitary evaporation. In this model, the black hole is taken to be a finite-dimensional quantum system whose dynamics can be represented by a quantum circuit, and its information-processing and communication abilities are studied. We identify the assumptions underlying this modelling and highlight two key features, fast scrambling dynamics and entanglement as a resource, that underpin the information release in the model. We argue that this reasoning exemplifies a broader change in how information is used in black hole physics, in which quantum information theory now provides a useful operational modelling framework. This application avoids earlier philosophical objections insofar as it is not based on epistemic ignorance and does not regard information as a substance. This line of reasoning has become central to the debate and, as such, warrants greater attention from the philosophy of physics community.

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We review and analyse quantum information-theoretic approaches to black hole evaporation that purport to bring us closer to a resolution of the black hole information paradox. Our focus is on the Page-time paradox and on the contribution of the Hayden-Preskill model to understanding information release under the assumption of unitary evaporation. In this model, the black hole is taken to be a finite-dimensional quantum system whose dynamics can be represented by a quantum circuit, and its information-processing and communication abilities are studied. We identify the assumptions underlying this modelling and highlight two key features, fast scrambling dynamics and entanglement as a resource, that underpin the information release in the model. We argue that this reasoning exemplifies a broader change in how information is used in black hole physics, in which quantum information theory now provides a useful operational modelling framework. This application avoids earlier philosophical objections insofar as it is not based on epistemic ignorance and does not regard information as a substance. This line of reasoning has become central to the debate and, as such, warrants greater attention from the philosophy of physics community.
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.
We investigate a plausible route to resolving the black hole information paradox by examining the effects of decoherence on Hawking radiation. In particular, we show that a finite but nonzero rate of decoherence can lead to efficient extraction of information from the evaporating black hole. This effectively pushes the paradox from becoming manifest at the Page time when the black hole has evaporated to half its size, to a timescale solely determined by the rate of decoherence. If this rate is due to a putative interaction with gravitons, the black hole at this timescale can be expected to be Planck sized, but notably without an extensive amount of information packed inside. We justify our findings by numerically studying a toy model of stabilizer circuits that can efficiently model black hole evaporation in the presence of decoherence. The latter is found to be well described by an effective rate equation for the entanglement and which corroborates our findings.
Quantum computers are emerging technologies expected to become important tools for exploring various aspects of fundamental physics in the future. Therefore, we pose the question of whether quantum computers can help us to study the Page curve and the black hole information dynamics, which has been a key focus in fundamental physics. In this regard, we rigorously examine the qubit transport model, a toy qubit model of black hole evaporation on IBM’s superconducting quantum computers, to shed light on this question. Specifically, we implement the quantum simulation of the scrambling dynamics in black holes using an efficient random unitary circuit. Furthermore, we employ the swap-based many-body interference protocol and the randomized measurement protocol to measure the entanglement entropy of Hawking radiation qubits in this model. Finally, by incorporating quantum error mitigation techniques into our challenging implementation of entanglement entropy measurement protocols on the IBM quantum hardware, we accurately determine the Rényi entropy in the qubit transport model, thus showcasing the utility of quantum computers for future investigations of complex quantum systems.
In this paper, we analyze whether quantum correlations between successive steps of evaporation can open any way to resolve the black hole information paradox. Recently a celebrated result in literature shows that `small' correction to leading order Hawking analysis fails to restore unitarity in black hole evaporation. We study a toy qubit model of evaporation allowing small quantum correlations between successive steps and verify the previous result. Then we generalize the concept of correction to Hawking state by relaxing the `smallness' condition. Our result generates a nontrivial upper and lower bound on change in entanglement entropy in the evaporation process. This gives us a quantitative measure of correction that would mathematically facilitate restoration of unitarity in black hole evaporation. We then investigate whether this result is compatible to the established physical constraints of unitary evolution of a state in a subsystem. We find that the generalized bound on entanglement entropy leads to significant deviation from Page curve. This leads us to agree with the recent claim in literature that no amount of correction in the form of Bell pair states would lead to any resolution to the information paradox.
The non-isometric holographic model of the black hole interior stands out as a potential resolution of the long-standing black hole information puzzle since it remedies the friction between the effective calculation and the microscopic description. In this study, combining the final-state projection model, the non-isometric model of black hole interior and Hayden-Preskill thought experiment, we investigate the information recovery from decoding Hawking radiation and demonstrate the emergence of the Page time in this setup. We incorporate the effective modes into the scrambling inside the horizon, which are usually disregarded in Hayden-Preskill protocols, and show that the Page time can be identified as the transition of information transmission channels from the EPR projection to the local projections. This offers a new perspective on the Page time. We compute the decoupling condition under which retrieving information is feasible and show that this model computes the black hole entropy consistent with the quantum extremal surface calculation. Assuming the full knowledge of the dynamics of the black hole interior, we show how Yoshida-Kitaev decoding strategy can be employed in the modified Hayden-Preskill protocol. Furthermore, we perform experimental tests of both probabilistic and Grover's search decoding strategies on the 7-qubit IBM quantum processors to validate our analytical findings and confirm the feasibility of retrieving information in the non-isometric model. This study would stimulate more interests to explore black hole information problem on the quantum processors.
Thirty years ago, John Preskill concluded "that the information loss paradox may well presage a revolution in fundamental physics" and mused that "Conceivably, the puzzle of black hole evaporation portends a scientific revolution as sweeping as that that led to the formulation of quantum theory in the early 20th century." Many still agree with this assessment. On the other hand, it seems to me the "paradox" has little to do with the physical world but rather, at best, simply points out the possible inconsistency of two, already disparate, theories (mathematical models) of nature, general relativity and quantum mechanics, with virtually no conceivable observational consequences. The information paradox hinges on the concepts of a pure quantum state, the unitarity of quantum mechanics, and Hawking's semi-classical calculation of black hole evaporation. I used the qualifier "at best" above because, for me, the concept of a quantum state is far more restrictive than required by the paradox while unitarity is not a property of nature but rather of a mathematical model and is already violated by the process of making a measurement. Furthermore, the semi-classical calculation of Hawking is surely of limited applicability.