Black holes and information theory

• Published in: Contemporary physics Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 31 - 43
• Main Author: Bekenstein, Jacob D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.01.2004; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Astronomy; Black holes; Classical black holes; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; General relativity and gravitation; Information and communication sciences; Information science; Information science. Documentation; Late stages of stellar evolution (including black holes); Library and information science. General aspects; Physics; Physics of black holes; Sciences and techniques of general use; Stars; Theory; Holography; Information storage; Black hole; Thermodynamic properties; Information theory
• ISSN: 0010-7514; 1366-5812
• DOI: 10.1080/00107510310001632523

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.