Relative-Entropy Flow Across the Page Transition
hep-th, gr-qc, quant-ph
Submitted: 2026-10-06
Updated: 2026-10-06
Comments: 11 pages, many figures
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: We develop a computational framework for the quantum relative entropy based on the replica trick and apply it to analyze the evaporation process method of Jackiw-Teitelboim black holes.
Abstract
We develop a computational framework for the quantum relative entropy based on the replica trick and apply it to analyze the evaporation process method of Jackiw-Teitelboim black holes. We show that the relative entropies between the exact radiation state and the Hawking saddle state and the replica wormholes saddle state quantify information-theoretic costs inherent to coarse-grained semiclassical descriptions. During evaporation, the relative entropy for the Hawking saddle increases monotonically, reflecting a progressively higher thermodynamic cost of sustaining the Hawking description. Conversely, the relative entropy associated with the replica wormholes saddle decreases, which indicates that the description of connected geometries becomes progressively more accurate. Moreover, the sign of the difference between the two quantities reverses precisely at the Page time, providing an information-theoretic diagnosis for the transition between competing gravitational saddles. Our results recast the Page transition as a flow of relative entropy costs between competing semi-classical descriptions, revealing an information-theoretic structure underlying the emergence of effective irreversibility in coarse-grained black hole evaporation.
Sources
- The Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity
- The entropy of bulk quantum fields and the entanglement wedge of an evaporating black hole
- The Page curve of Hawking radiation from semiclassical geometry
- Entanglement Wedge Reconstruction and the Information Paradox
- The entropy of Hawking radiation
- Information in Black Hole Radiation
- Time Dependence of Hawking Radiation Entropy
- Zeno's paradox and black hole information loss problem
- Replica wormholes and the black hole interior
- Replica Wormholes and the Entropy of Hawking Radiation
- Replica Wormholes, Modular Entropy, and Capacity of Entanglement in JT Gravity
- Comments on the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model
- Gapless Spin-Fluid Ground State in a Random Quantum Heisenberg Magnet
- On the Replica Problem in Supersymmetric SYK Models
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