INFORMATION CONSUMPTION BY REISSNER-NORDSTROM BLACK-HOLES

The low-energy scattering of charged fermions by extremal magnetic Rei ssner-Nordstrom black holes is analyzed in the large-Nand S-wave appro ximations. It is shown that (in these approximations) information is c arried into a causally inaccessible region of spacetime, and thereby e ffectively lost. It is also shown that there is an infinite degeneracy of quantum black hole ground states, or ''remnants'' which store, but will not reveal, the information. A notable feature of the analysis, not shared by recent analyses of dilatonic black holes, is that the ke y physical questions can be answered within the weak coupling domain. We regard these results as strong evidence that effective information loss occurs in our Universe.