Two pillars of physics cannot both be right here. Quantum mechanics forbids information from vanishing, while Hawking's 1976 calculation makes black hole radiation purely thermal, meaning the radiation entropy only climbs and whatever fell in is gone with it. If information really does escape, the entropy curve must turn back down around the hole's half-life, a shape known as the Page curve. Entanglement island calculations have reproduced that curve in specific models, the firewall puzzle remains unresolved, and nothing but pen and paper has ruled on any of it.
Two pillars of physics cannot both be right here. Quantum mechanics forbids information from vanishing, while Hawking's 1976 calculation makes black hole radiation purely thermal, meaning the radiation entropy only climbs and whatever fell in is gone with it. If information really does escape, the entropy curve must turn back down around the hole's half-life, a shape known as the Page curve. Entanglement island calculations have reproduced that curve in specific models, the firewall puzzle remains unresolved, and nothing but pen and paper has ruled on any of it.
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