Black holes and information theory

Abstract

During the past three decades investigators have unveiled a number of deep connections between physical information and black holes whose consequences for ordinary systems go beyond what has been deduced purely from the axioms of information theory. After a self-contained introduction to black hole thermodynamics, we review from its vantage point topics such as the information conundrum that emerges from the ability of incipient black holes to radiate, the various entropy bounds for non-black hole systems (holographic bound, universal entropy bound, etc.) which are most easily derived from black hole thermodynamics, Bousso's covariant entropy bound, the holographic principle of particle physics, and the subject of channel capacity of quantum communication channels.

Acknowledgments

My former student A. Mayo first taught me some of the results in section 8. Research on this subject is supported by the Israel Science Foundation established by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Notes

Jacob Bekenstein obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 1972. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1974 moved to the new Ben Gurion University in Israel where he became full professor in 1978 and the Arnow Professor of Astrophysics in 1983. In 1990 he moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he has been since 1993 the Polak Professor of Theoretical Physics. In 1997 he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union and is now serving a second term in the International Committee for General Relativity and Gravitation. His scientific interests include gravitational theory, black hole physics, relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, galactic dynamics and the physical aspects of information theory.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacob D Bekenstein

Jacob Bekenstein obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 1972. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1974 moved to the new Ben Gurion University in Israel where he became full professor in 1978 and the Arnow Professor of Astrophysics in 1983. In 1990 he moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he has been since 1993 the Polak Professor of Theoretical Physics. In 1997 he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union and is now serving a second term in the International Committee for General Relativity and Gravitation. His scientific interests include gravitational theory, black hole physics, relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, galactic dynamics and the physical aspects of information theory.