Sequestration, Not Destruction A Conceptual Clarification of the Black Hole Information Paradox

Abstract The black hole information paradox—the apparent loss of unitarity during the formation and evaporation of a black hole—is shown to arise from a category mistake.Sequestration of matter behind an event horizon is not equivalent to destructionof information. A black hole’s existence, characterized by its externally observable mass M, angular momentum J, and charge Q, already constitutes the complete macroscopic record of the infallen matter. The Bekenstein-Hawking entropySBH = kBA/4ℓ2P is precisely the statistical measure of this sequestration; the generalized second law holds automatically without access to the interior. We furtherclarify that the standard heuristic image of Hawking radiation—virtual pairs withnegative energy falling in and positive energy escaping—unnecessarily conflicts withthe one-way nature of the horizon. A black hole can possess a temperature and radiate without forcing information to return through the horizon. The ultimate fateof sequestered information, should the black hole evaporate, is naturally accountedfor by its transfer into a new, causally independent universe created at the formersingularity. The paradox, therefore, is not a physical inconsistency but a historicalcategory mistake. A black hole, simply by existing in the parent universe, is its ownrecord.