The Black Hole Information Paradox

Dr. Edgar Shaghoulian
UCSC

Darwin 103
4:00 PM

        Stephen Hawking's black hole information paradox is a conflict between gravity and quantum mechanics, and it has been both a crisis and a guiding light for theoretical physicists for over 40 years. I will describe recent work showing that wormholes in quantum gravity lead to a new formula for entropy  --  this formula corrects Hawking's and is consistent with both gravity and quantum mechanics. I will end with prospects for quantum cosmology.