Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2015) 130: 196
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15196-y

Regular Article

No information or horizon paradoxes for Th. Smiths

Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

^* e-mail: christian.maes@fys.kuleuven.be

Received: 3 June 2015
Revised: 20 August 2015
Accepted: 2 September 2015
Published online: 8 October 2015

Abstract

The Statistical mechanician in the street (our Th. Smiths) must be surprised upon hearing popular versions of some of today’s most discussed paradoxes in astronomy and cosmology. In fact, rather standard reminders of the meaning of thermal probabilities in statistical mechanics appear to answer the horizon problem (one of the major motivations for inflation theory) and the information paradox (related to black hole physics), at least as they are usually presented. Still the paradoxes point to interesting gaps in our statistical understanding of (quantum) gravitational effects.