Can a New Law of Physics Explain a Black Hole Paradox?
When the theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind encountered a head-scratching paradox about black holes, he turned to an unexpected place: computer science. In nature, most self-contained systems eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium ... but not black holes. The interior volume of a black hole appears to forever expand without limit. But why? Susskind had a suspicion that a concept called computational complexity, which underpins everything from cryptography to quantum computing to the blockchain and AI, might provide an explanation.
He and his colleagues believe that the complexity of quantum entanglement continues to evolve inside a black hole long past the point of what’s called “heat death.” Now Susskind and his collaborator, Adam Brown, have used this insight to propose a new law of physics: the second law of quantum complexity, a quantum analogue of the second law of thermodynamics.
Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-new...
Also appearing in the video: Xie Chen of CalTech, Adam Bouland of Stanford and Umesh Vazirani of UC Berkeley.
00:00 Intro to a second law of quantum complexity
01:16 Entropy drives most closed systems to thermal equilibrium. Why are black holes different?
03:34 History of the concept of "entropy" and "heat death"
05:01 Quantum complexity and entanglement might explain black holes
07:32 A turn to computational circuit complexity to describe black holes
08:47 Using a block cipher and cryptography to test the theory
10:16 A new law of physics is proposed
11:23 Embracing a quantum universe leads to new insights
12:20 When quantum complexity reaches an end...the universe begins again
Thumbnail / title card image designed by Olena Shmahalo
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