Quantum information transfer and models for black hole mechanics

General features of information transfer between quantum subsystems, via unitary evolution, are investigated, with applications to the problem of information transfer from a black hole to its surroundings. A particularly direct form of quantum information transfer is ``subsystem transfer,'' which can be characterized by the saturation of a subadditivity inequality. We also describe more general unitary quantum information transfer, and categorize different models for black hole evolution. Evolution that only creates paired excitations inside/outside the black hole is shown not to extract information, but information-transferring models exist both in the ``saturating'' and ``nonsaturating'' category. The former more closely capture thermodynamic behavior; the latter generically have an enhanced energy flux, beyond that of Hawking.