Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics and Firewalls

Thought experiments have played an important role in figuring out the laws of physics. For the unification of quantum mechanics and gravity, where the phenomena take place in extreme regimes, they are even more crucial. Hawking's 1976 paper "Breakdown of Predictability in Gravitational Collapse" presented one of the great thought experiments in the history of physics, arguing that black holes destroy information in a way that requires a modification of the laws of quantum mechanics. Skeptics for years failed to poke holes in Hawking's argument, but concluded that if quantum mechanics is to be saved then our understanding of spacetime must break down in a radical way.

Dr. Polchinsky will present some of the history of these ideas, what has already been learned from this puzzle, and the recent `firewall' controversy, which argues that Einstein's theory breaks down radically for an observer falling into a black hole.