The Measurement Problem in the Thermodynamics of Black Holes

This manuscript gives a solution to the black hole information paradox by bringing to the debate a fundamental aspect of information science: the process of measurement by a receiver. Bekenstein and Hawking established the foundations of black hole thermodynamics based on previous works of Brillouin and Szilard on information physics. In this work, we demonstrate that the relation between energy and information established in communication technology by Shannon and Landauer has not been adequately applied to black hole physics. As Landauer states, a computation process is closely akin to a measurement. Our argument is grounded on the physical concepts of measurement, signal-to-noise ratio, energy dissipation during the switching process in computation, and hysteresis loops. We give special attention to the role of noise and energy dissipation in the process of information transmission. We demonstrate that Szilard's work fails to establish a connection between information and entropy in agreement with the works of Landauer and Shannon. We also demonstrate that a quantum state cannot be directly equivalent to a unit of information. The entropy and temperature attributed to black holes are questioned, and a solution to the black hole information paradox is provided. Similarly to what happens with Maxwell's demon, the black hole information paradox is "exorcised" once we account for the process of measurement and information processing.