Horizons and Soft Quantum Information

Abstract:It was recently shown that black holes decohere any quantum superpositions in their vicinity. This decoherence is mediated by soft radiation through the horizon, and can be understood as the result of the fact that quantum states in the exterior source distinguishable states of long-range fields in the interior. To study this phenomenon and others, we extend Tomita-Takesaki theory to accommodate states of soft radiation such as arise in the electromagnetic and gravitational memory effects, and provide a general framework for computing the distinguishability of general coherent states. Applying these tools, we use the methods of unambiguous state discrimination and approximate quantum error correction to prove some new relations regarding the distinguishability of quantum states, and the quantum information content of soft radiation, and thereby show that a black hole (or any horizon) decoheres its environment as though its interior were full of optimal observers.

32 pages, 2 figures. v2: Strengthened the bound of Eq. (29), corrected an error in the proof of Eq. (A17), and fixed several typos. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

arXiv:2512.20754 [hep-th]

(or arXiv:2512.20754v2 [hep-th] for this version)