Locking information in black holes

We show that a central presumption in the debate over black-hole information loss is incorrect. Ensuring that information not escape during evaporation does not require that it all remain trapped until the final stage of the process. Using the recent quantum information-theoretic result of locking, we show that the amount of information that must remain can be very small, even as the amount already radiated is negligible. Information need not be additive: A small system can lock a large amount of information, making it inaccessible. Only if the set of initial states is restricted can information leak. © 2006 The American Physical Society.