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The black hole information paradox has puzzled physicists for decades. New research shows how quantum connections in spacetime itself may resolve the paradox, and in the process leave behind a subtle signature in gravitational waves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n For a long time we thought black holes, as mysterious as they were, didn\u2019t cause any trouble. Information can\u2019t be created or destroyed, but when objects fall below the event horizons, the information they carry with them is forever locked from view. Crucially, it\u2019s not destroyed, just hidden.<\/p>\n But then Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes aren\u2019t entirely black. They emit a small amount of radiation and eventually evaporate, disappearing from the cosmic scene entirely. But that radiation doesn\u2019t carry any information with it, which created the famous paradox: when the black hole dies, where does all its information go?<\/p>\n One solution to this paradox is known as non-violent nonlocality. This takes advantage of a broader version of quantum entanglement, the \u201cspooky action at a distance\u201d that can tie together particles. But in the broader picture, aspects of spacetime itself become entangled with each other. This means that whatever happens inside the black hole is tied to the structure of spacetime outside of it.<\/p>\n \n