Dvali, GiaEisemann, LukasMichel, MarcoZell, Sebastian2020-12-032020-12-032020-12-032020-11-1810.1103/PhysRevD.102.103523https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/173843WOS:000590409500004Systems of enhanced memory capacity are subjected to a universal effect of memory burden, which suppresses their decay. In this paper, we study a prototype model to show that memory burden can be overcome by rewriting stored quantum information from one set of degrees of freedom to another one. However, due to a suppressed rate of rewriting, the evolution becomes extremely slow compared to the initial stage. Applied to black holes, this predicts a metamorphosis, including a drastic deviation from Hawking evaporation, at the latest after losing half of the mass. This raises a tantalizing question about the fate of a black hole. As two likely options, it can either become extremely long lived or decay via a new classical instability into gravitational lumps. The first option would open up a new window for small primordial black holes as viable dark matter candidates.Astronomy & AstrophysicsPhysics, Particles & FieldsPhysicstext::journal::journal article::research article