In the absence of a comprehensive picture of quantum gravity, physicists were forced to employ semi-classical methods to the theoretical study of black thermodynamics. These studies led to many interesting results, some of which were quite puzzling. Chief among these is the "information paradox," in which the evaporation of a black hole is found to violate unitarity . The Fuzzball Paradigm attempts to resolve these conundrums by applying string theory as a fully quantum-mechanical theory of gravity, resulting in a radically different picture of black holes. In this talk I will review a few of the semi-classical results, including the information paradox. I will then present a brief overview of the fuzzball paradigm and its recent successes in resolving these questions.
Ice Cream and Knowledge provided.
