Hot plasma mirror may help solve Stephen Hawking’s black hole paradox

A few particles of light bouncing off a flying mirror made of charged particles may reveal whether or not black holes destroy information, a famous problem in physics

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

A flying mirror made by blasting a gas of electrons and ions with a powerful laser could help solve a long-standing mystery known as the black hole information paradox.

This paradox arose in 1974 when Stephen Hawking calculated that, according to quantum theory, black holes should emit small amounts of electromagnetic radiation until they eventually evaporate. This so-called Hawking radiation doesn’t hold any information about what fell into the black hole in the first place, which means that once a …