The Black Hole Information Paradox as Projection Boundary: Ω-Conservation, Event Horizons, and the Non-Destruction of Information

Abstract The black hole information paradox (Hawking, 19741976) poses a fundamental conict: quantum mechanics requires unitary evolution (information is preserved), while black hole evaporation via Hawking radiation appears to destroy information (the radiation is thermal, carrying no information about the in-fallen state). After fty years of debate, the paradox remains unresolvedHawking conceded it in 2004 [3] but no complete mechanism has been identied. ˆ We resolve the paradox by identifying its source: confusing Ω with Πext[Ω]. Information is never destroyed. Ω-conservation (Noether, P2) guarantees this. What is destroyed at the event horizon is not the information but the exterior ˆ observer's projection operator : Πext becomes inapplicable inside the horizon. The ˆ ˆ information encoded in the in-fallen matter passes from Πext[Ω] to Πint[Ω]two projections of the same Ω = 1 that agree in total but disagree in local accessibility. Hawking radiation is the κ→0 leakage of Ω-entanglement across the projection boundary. The Page curve [4]entanglement entropy rising and then falling as the black hole evaporatesfollows directly from Ω-conservation without invoking island formulas [8, 9] or specic stringy mechanisms. The paradox is not a paradox. It is a projection error.