A black hole resembles a safe that slowly gives up its contents, energy and information, through a faint glow known as Hawking radiation. But if the safe opens too quickly, a 'firewall' may flare up at its boundary — a region where the familiar laws of physics break down.
In the new work, physicists complicated the model of this safe. They represented the matter falling into the hole as quantum bits (qubits) that can be mixed with varying strength. The parameter θ (theta) acts as a tuning knob: at θ = 0 there is no mixing, and at θ = π/2 it is maximal. The stronger the mixing, the sooner a firewall emerges between the black hole and the fresh radiation.
The scientists found that for certain values of θ, the information about what fell into the hole does not disappear. It gets imprinted on the outgoing radiation, like a key that the safe throws out. This gives hope that the black hole information paradox can be resolved without breaking quantum mechanics.
The strongest 'fire' (firewall) blazes when the black hole is small and cold, as if a tiny safe heats up faster than a huge one.
In Dan Simmons' novel 'Hyperion', the Time Tombs are surrounded by an anti-entropic field that distorts causality — vaguely reminiscent of effects at a black hole's horizon.