Evaporation of black holes in flat space entangled with an auxiliary universe

Abstract

We study a thermofield double type entangled state on two disjoint universes A and B, where one of the universes is asymptotically flat containing a black hole. As we increase the entanglement temperature, this black hole receives back-reaction from the stress–energy tensor of the state. This results in lengthening of the wormhole region in the black hole interior, and decreasing of its horizon area, both of which are key features of an evaporating black hole. We then compute the entanglement entropy in universe A through the island formula, and argue that it naturally follows the Page curve of an evaporating black hole in flat space. We also study the effects of local operations in the gravitating universe with the black hole. We find that they accelerate the evaporation of the black hole, thereby disrupting the entanglement between the two universes. Furthermore, we observe that, depending on whether the operation can be regarded as a local operation and classical communication or not, the behavior of the entanglement entropy changes. In particular, when the operation is made neither in the entanglement wedge of the radiation system nor that of the black hole, the transition between the island phase and the no-island phase can happen multiple times.