🚀 go-pugleaf

jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) writes:

> [stuff deleted]

>classical mechanics).)  This is the basis of Hawking radiation and his
>later predictions that virtual black holes might make time evolution
>turn pure states into mixed states -- which he represents by a
>"superscattering operator".  This of course would seem to give an arrow
>of time.  Confusion reigns, as far as I'm concerned.

<grin>, a wonderful understatement :). Don Page recently gave a status
report on this stuff (actually, I heard the talk twice- once at
Banff, 2 months ago, and also last week, here at the UBC GR group),
and things have not improved, clarity-wise, since I was first in grad school.
The whole question is begging for an interpretation of quantum mechanics.
On top of that, the dynamics of BH radiation may be EXTREMELY dependent
on small scale effects (something I'm trying to work on now), and
they may NEVER mix the state.

			Steve
--
| Name: Stephen P. Braham | Perversion: Quantum Cosmologist|
| Hangout: UBC physics    | Signature:  Euclidean          |
|          Vancouver, BC  |--------------------------------+
|          Canada         | E-mail: braham@physics.ubc.ca  |