Black Holes: Fuzzy Tangles of Strings?

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=753&e=10&u=/space/20040301/sc_space/blackholesfuzzytanglesofstrings

Black Holes: Fuzzy Tangles of Strings?
By SPACE.com Staff, SPACE.com

Black holes may not be the smooth, featureless gravitational gluttons long thought to completely devour any matter or information that strays too close.

According to a new study, information may continue to exist long after entering a black hole, preserved in a giant tangle of strings that stretch from the hole's core to its surface, giving it more of a "fuzzball" appearance than that of a smooth gravitational beast. <snip>

The research appears in the March 1 issue of the journal Nuclear Physics B.<snip>

The debate over whether information could still exist after falling into a black hole has been around for years. Famed scientists Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne and John Preskill even made a bet as to whether information that enters a black hole ceases to exist -- that is, whether the interior of a black hole is changed at all by the characteristics of particles that enter it. Hawking's research suggested that the particles have no effect whatsoever. But his theory violated the laws of quantum mechanics and created a contradiction known as the "information paradox."<snip>

Since Mathur's conjecture suggests that strings continue to exist inside the black hole, and the nature of the strings depends on the particles that made up the original source material, then each black hole is as unique as are the stars, planets, or galaxy that formed it. The strings from any subsequent material that enters the black hole would remain traceable as well.<snip>

[papau]

1. HELP- Black Hole size same on Classical as on string theory - I

looked at the String equations 5 (more likely 10 - time goes by fast these days) years ago and concluded no real solutions were possible (shows you what I know! :-))

So does anyone know how we are getting the size of the black hole calculated via string theory?

[rman]

2. 10 years ago? things have changed

i'm no expert but afaik things have changed in string theory (now "M-Theory") during the past decade.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

And it seems things have changed yet again since that documentary.
(sorry, no source)