About
Black Holes on Blackboards: Chalking the Paradox
Date: 2026/7/6-10 (Mon.-Fri.)
Venue:
NCTS Physics Lecture Hall,
4th Floor, Cosmology Hall, National Taiwan University, Taipei
(maps.app.goo.gl/7dAgz4SLa6HrSBv37)
Introduction:
The black hole information paradox has been one of the most perplexing problems in theoretical physics since Hawking's 1974 calculation. The purpose of this workshop is to work through the problem carefully, leaving no room for confusion about what is actually established, what is assumed, and what remains genuinely open.
The first part of the workshop is devoted to blackboard talks — two per day, with the rest of the time reserved for open, unscripted discussion. The format is deliberately unhurried: just chalk, blackboards, and hard questions. The final days will be open to broader contributed seminars.
Confirmed Speakers:
Chong-Sun Chu (NTHU) "A Proposal for a Quantum Mechanical Model of Black Hole"
Sumit Das (Kentucky) "Comments on Target Space Entanglement"
Pei-Ming Ho (NTU) "Hawking radiation after the scrambling time"
Emil Martinec (Chicago) "The black hole S-matrix in gauge/gravity duality"
Samir Mathur (Ohio State U) "Introduction to the black hole information paradox", "Contrasting the fuzzball and wormhole paradigms"
Yuki Yokokura (Kochi University of Technology) "Semi-Classical Dynamics of Evaporating Black Holes and the Emergence of a Quantum Gravity Phase"
Organizers:
Pei-Ming Ho (NTU)
Samir Mathur (Ohio State U)