Black Spheres in Information–Pressure Theory: Sealed Horizons, Edge Thermodynamics, and Exterior Universality

Description: This paper develops the Information–Pressure Theory (IPT) description of black holes, termed "black spheres" to emphasize their boundary-first characterization. A black sphere is defined as a causal surface whose boundary record saturates the entropy–area capacity S_max = (k_B/4Λ²)A and enforces causal sealing via the Sealed Horizon Boundary Condition (SHBC). The framework resolves the information paradox through edge-record bookkeeping: no duplication of accessible records occurs because infalling information is absorbed into the boundary ledger rather than transmitted to an independent interior register. Hawking radiation emerges as thermodynamically constrained edge-ledger emission, approximately thermal for large areas but information-releasing near the endpoint. Exterior observables—gravitational lensing, accretion coupling, quasinormal mode ringdown, and gravitational waves—depend only on the edge record class (M, J, Q) via the Boundary-Equivalence Lightcone Axiom (BELA), ensuring phenomenological equivalence with standard general-relativistic predictions. The interior is not operationally accessible to exterior observers; IPT fixes only the extended edge record and the exterior null data. Any interior description is a bulk representative of the same boundary record, not an additional independent register. Key results include: (1) derivation of Hawking temperature from capacity considerations, (2) a Page-curve mechanism from shrinking edge capacity, (3) thermodynamic selection of jets as entropy-efficient export channels, and (4) exterior universality theorems for lensing, ringdown, and gravitational wave emission. Keywords: black holes, information paradox, Hawking radiation, holography, entropy bounds, quantum gravity, horizon thermodynamics, information theory, Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, boundary conditions, quasinormal modes, gravitational lensing, accretion disks, relativistic jets, Page curve, unitarity, firewall paradox, black hole evaporation, Kerr black holes, theoretical physics, Information-Pressure Theory, IPT