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I have been studying black holes lately. One complaint I hear often is that information is lost when a particle enters a black hole. Supposedly, this never happens outside a black hole. It is argued that it is possible to determine a particle's past states and future states. OK, so imagine you have two isomers (the chemistry definition). You break them down into two sets of protons, neutrons and electrons. You forget which set belongs to which isomer. You take one set to a quantum physicist. Can he tell which isomer the set of protons, neutrons and electrons came from? If so, how? Or is that information lost?

garmichaels
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    1. You can't isolate quarks. 2. Information conservation only applies to isolated systems, so you need to somehow preserve all the information regarding energy & momentum added & emitted during the process you apply to your isomers. – PM 2Ring Dec 24 '21 at 23:47
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    Are you meaning to ask something abut black holes, or is your question strictly about reversibility with ordinary matter? – Buzz Dec 25 '21 at 00:47
  • Both, Buzz. I am wondering if the claims about reversibility are always true and if the lack of reversibility with regard to black holes is really unique. – garmichaels Dec 25 '21 at 18:58
  • Thanks PM 2Ring, I forgot you can't isolate quarks, but what about virtual quarks in the quantum foam, or a really hot quark-gluon plazma (think early universe)? If those don't work, then substitute protons for quarks in the thought experiment, since protons can be isolated, right? – garmichaels Dec 25 '21 at 19:02
  • Possible duplicate: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/270758/50583 – ACuriousMind Dec 26 '21 at 20:04

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