Entanglement and apparent thermality in simulated black holes

We investigate the apparent thermality of Hawking radiation in the semi-classical limit of quantum black holes using the mean-field limit of a chiral spin-chain simulator, which models fermions propagating on a black hole space-time in the continuum. In this free-theory regime, no genuine thermalisation occurs. Nevertheless, we show that a bipartition across the event horizon yields a reduced density matrix whose mode occupations follow an apparent thermal Fermi-Dirac distribution. In contrast, partitions away from the horizon do not exhibit thermal behaviour, reflecting the absence of true equilibration. Our results demonstrate that Hawking radiation appears thermal only with respect to horizon bipartitions in free theories, while true thermal behaviour emerges only in the presence of interactions deep in the black hole interior.