Surviving a black hole is not easy, but calculations by Abhay Ashtekar of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and his collaborators suggest that under certain conditions quantum information might make it out.
This team of physicists imagines space–time as having a fundamentally quantum structure. Considered in this way, a black hole's point of infinite mass and gravitational pull, known as its 'singularity', disappears, and quantum fluctuations can travel right through the black hole's core.
This result is important because it fulfills the stipulation of quantum mechanics that information is always conserved. The authors hope their work might one day help to integrate quantum mechanics with theories of gravity.
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Theoretical physics: Better out than in. Nature 453, 566 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453566c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/453566c
