Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem

Dejan Stojkovic; Lawrence M. Krauss; Tanmay Vachaspati

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Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem

Tanmay Vachaspati, Dejan Stojkovic, Lawrence M. Krauss

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Submitted 7 Sep 2006

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Together with the non-thermal nature of the radiation, this may resolve the black hole information loss problem.

how it is stated · hedged possibility 1.00 read the record →

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arXiv IDgr-qc/0609024 (version 3)

Pith IDQPX7RCNJ, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationDejan Stojkovic, Lawrence M. Krauss, Tanmay Vachaspati. "Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem." arXiv:gr-qc/0609024 (2006). https://pith.science/paper/QPX7RCNJ

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The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

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Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 4,290 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.03 · states limitation 0.45 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.08 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.07 · compares with prior results 0.11 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v3. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

We study the formation of black holes by spherical domain wall collapse as seen by an asymptotic observer, using the functional Schrodinger formalism. To explore what signals such observers will see, we study radiation of a scalar quantum field in the collapsing domain wall background. The total energy flux radiated diverges when backreaction of the radiation on the collapsing wall is ignored, and the domain wall is seen by the asymptotic observer to evaporate by non-thermal ``pre-Hawking radiation'' during the collapse process. Evaporation by pre-Hawking radiation implies that an asymptotic observer can never lose objects down a black hole. Together with the non-thermal nature of the radiation, this may resolve the black hole information loss problem.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	We study the formation of black holes by spherical domain wall collapse as seen by an asymptotic observer, using the functional Schrodinger formalism.	contribution 0.78	0.91	0.03	asserted 0.81
s1	To explore what signals such observers will see, we study radiation of a scalar quantum field in the collapsing domain wall background.	method 0.82	0.86	0.03	asserted 0.80
s2	The total energy flux radiated diverges when backreaction of the radiation on the collapsing wall is ignored, and the domain wall is seen by the asymptotic observer to evaporate by non-thermal ``pre-Hawking radiation'' during the collapse process.	result 1.00	0.84	0.20	asserted 1.00
s3	Evaporation by pre-Hawking radiation implies that an asymptotic observer can never lose objects down a black hole.	interpretation 0.98	0.50	0.43	asserted 0.93
s4	Together with the non-thermal nature of the radiation, this may resolve the black hole information loss problem.	interpretation 1.00	0.40	0.64	hedged possibility 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 1.00 · evidence from proof or derivation 0.98.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read

arXiv listing abstract v3

not examined

full text
figures and tables
references and citing sentences
relations to other papers

levels run

P abstract

not run

S sections
T body sentences
C citations
R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

We study the formation of black holes by spherical domain wall collapse as seen by an asymptotic observer, using the functional Schrodinger formalism. To explore what signals such observers will see, we study radiation of a scalar quantum field in the collapsing domain wall background. The total energy flux radiated diverges when backreaction of the radiation on the collapsing wall is ignored, and the domain wall is seen by the asymptotic observer to evaporate by non-thermal ``pre-Hawking radiation'' during the collapse process. Evaporation by pre-Hawking radiation implies that an asymptotic observer can never lose objects down a black hole. Together with the non-thermal nature of the radiation, this may resolve the black hole information loss problem.

Human review

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

Hawking radiation and secularly growing loop corrections
hep-th 2015-08 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

Two-loop corrections to the Hawking flux in a collapsing thin-shell background grow linearly with time, signaling that perturbation theory breaks down and must be resummed.
A Self-consistent Model of the Black Hole Evaporation
hep-th 2013-02 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

A self-consistent semiclassical solution shows a single collapsing null shell stops evaporating and leaves a horizon, while continuous null matter evaporates completely without a macroscopic horizon.
Black Mirrors: CPT-Symmetric Alternatives to Black Holes
hep-th 2024-12 reject novelty 5.0 of 10

A two-sheeted spacetime glued at the black hole horizon, called the black mirror, is proposed as a singularity-free, CPT-symmetric alternative to black holes.

How later papers used it

51 later papers cite it

Evidence: substantial. 31 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 9 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

Pith read 17 of the 91 citing sentences, choosing only those whose citation markers point at this paper alone, and wrote the paraphrases from them. The summary, the counts, the evidence level, the links and the quotes come from code; the summary counts the papers listed below. A later paper is listed under a label when Pith's citation classifier gives one of its sentences that label at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), Pith's reading finds that the citing paper itself did it, and a second check confirms the paraphrase against the sentence. This section lists uses only. It does not list criticism or disagreement, so their absence here says nothing about how the paper has been received. Papers that share an author with this one are listed apart, under "By the same authors". A quote is the citing authors' own sentence, shown when their paper's licence is CC BY, CC BY-SA or CC0. JSON

1 later paper by other authors is listed below: 1 compared its own results with it. 1 more paper by the same authors is listed: 1 used its method or tool.

Uses its method or tool 1 of 4 papers with this label · 1 by the same authors

By the same authors

Used the recently developed functional Schrodinger formalism of this paper to study a scalar field propagating in the background of an expanding dS space.

Time dependent fluctuations and particle production in cosmological de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spaces (2010) (same authors) · 1.00 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

Compares with it 1 paper

Compared its own results with those of this paper and saw that the presence of the charge has qualitatively no effect when considering the radiation in the form of a neutral scalar particle.

Hawking Radiation from a Reisner-Nordstr\"om Domain Wall (2009) · 1.00 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

How the literature uses it

45 arXiv papers cite this in 83 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 60 sentences without a confident label

Uses its method or tool 4 papers

We used the functional Schrodinger formalism which is especially convenient for this question since it gives us the time evolution of the system rather than radiation from a pre-existing black hole [ref] .

Radiation from a collapsing object is manifestly unitary · Introduction · 0.96
We will use the recently developed functional Schrodinger formalism [ref] to study a scalar field propagating in the background of an expanding dS space.

Time dependent fluctuations and particle production in cosmological de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spaces · Introduction · 1.00
We are going to introduce the functional Schrödinger equation $H_ΦΨ= i ∂Ψ/∂t$ [ref] .

Formation of the Hayward black hole from a collapsing shell · Absence of the horizon ($M<M^*$) · 0.94

Compares with it 1 paper

Comparing the results from this section with those found in Ref. [ref] , we see that the presence of the charge has qualitatively no effect when considering the radiation in the form of a neutral scalar particle.

Hawking Radiation from a Reisner-Nordstr\"om Domain Wall · Scalar Field · 1.00

Cites it as support 4 papers

An exciting aspect of the second picture where the shell burns out is that it resolves the information loss paradox in a very natural way [ref] .

On Constructing Baby Universes and Black Holes · Introduction · 0.99
References [ref] provides a big amount of calculations and arguments for this fact.

Gravity Induced Spontaneous Radiation · About the Universality of GISR · 1.00
There are observations in the literature that (i) infalling of a mass shell into the horizon of a pre-existing Schwarzschild background could be observed in the domain of time definition of far away observers, see references [ref] for concrete example and [ref] for more general speculations and (ii) radiations originating from the collapse of a mass shell can occur and finish before the shell getting into the horizon, see references [ref] .

Spontaneous Radiation of Black Holes · 3+1 Dimensional Schwarzschild Internal · 1.00

Cites it as background 10 papers

Hawking has finished already [ref] , new ideas on the information puzzle's reformulation and resolution continue to appear endlessly, ranging from the famous AMPS observation of firewall paradoxes [ref] and the ER=EPR proposition [ref] , to various nonlocal/entanglement [ref] revision believed being ignored in hawking's original calculation, and to totally new mechanisms for black holes to save information [ref] , although in challenges [ref] .

Schwarzschild Fuzzball and Explicitly Unitary Hawking Radiations · Introduction · 0.98
(For related ideas, see [ref] ).

Small, dark, and heavy: But is it a black hole? · Introduction · 0.98
In a related earlier paper, Vachaspati, Stojkovic and Krauss [ref] study the radiation of the material collapsing into a black hole in quantum field theory.

"Black Star" or Astrophysical Black Hole? · A Slightly Less Extravagant Other Claim (and why it's irrelevant to astrophysics...) · 0.93

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