Från hawking.org.uk
" At the GR17 conference in Dublin, Professor Hawking gave a controversial lecture on his new calculations regarding Black Hole Information Loss.
Press Release:
One of the most intriguing problems in theoretical physics has been solved by Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge. He presented his findings at GR17, an International Conference in Dublin, on Wednesday 21 July.
Black holes are often thought of as being regions of space into which matter and energy can fall, and disappear forever. In 1974, Stephen Hawking discovered that when one fused the ideas of quantum mechanics with those of general relativity, it was no longer true that black holes were completely black. They emitted radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. This radiation carried energy away from the black hole which meant that the black hole would gradually shrink and then disappear in a final explosive outburst.
These ideas led to a fundamental difficulty, the information paradox, the resolution of which is to be revealed in Dublin. The basic problem is that black holes, as well as eating matter, also appear to eat quantum mechanical information. Yet the most fundamental laws of physics demand that this information be preserved as the universe evolves. The information paradox was explored and formalised by Hawking in 1975. Since then, many have tried to find a solution.
Whilst most physicists think that there must be a resolution of the paradox, nobody has really produced a believable explanation. In fact, seven years ago the issue prompted Hawking, together with Kip Thorne of Caltech, to make a wager against John Preskill also of Caltech, that the information swallowed by black holes could never be recovered.
On Wednesday, Hawking conceded that he has lost the bet.
The way his new calculations work is to show that the event horizon, which is the surface of the black hole, has quantum fluctuations in it. These are the same uncertainties in position that were made famous by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and are central to quantum mechanics. The fluctuations gradually allow all the information inside the black hole to leak out, thus allowing us to form a consistent picture. The information paradox is now unravelled.
A complete description of this work will be published in professional journals and on the web in due course.