How many black holes fit on the head of a pin?

The Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of certain black holes can be computed microscopically in string theory by mapping the elusive problem of counting microstates of a strongly gravitating black hole to the tractable problem of counting microstates of a weakly coupled D-brane system, which has no event horizon, and indeed comfortably fits on the head of a pin. We show here that, contrary to widely held beliefs, the entropy of spherically symmetric black holes can easily be dwarfed by that of stationary multi-black-hole ``molecules'' of the same total charge and energy. Thus, the corresponding pin-sized D-brane systems do not even approximately count the microstates of a single black hole, but rather those of a zoo of entropically dominant multicentered configurations.Comment: 4 pages, fourth prize in the Gravity Research Foundation Essay competition 200

Universal features of the holographic duality: conformal anomaly and brane gravity trapping from 5d AdS Black Hole

We calculate the holographic conformal anomaly and brane Newton potential when bulk is 5d AdS BH. It is shown that such anomaly is the same as in the case of pure AdS or (asymptotically) dS bulk spaces, i.e. it is (bulk) metric independent one. While Newton potential on the static brane in AdS BH is different from the one in pure AdS space, the gravity trapping still occurs for two branes system. This indicates to metric independence of gravity localization.Comment: LaTeX file, 14 page

Real decoupling ghost quantization of the CGHS model for two dimensional black holes

A complete RST quantization of a CGHS model plus Strominger term is carried out. In so doing a conformal invariant theory with $\kappa=\frac{N}{12}$ is found, that is, without ghosts contribution. The physical consequences of the model are analysed and positive definite Hawking radiation is found.Comment: 14 pages, latex, no figures, marginal errors correcte

Universal Low-Energy Dynamics for Rotating Black Holes

Fundamental string theory has been used to show that low energy excitations of certain black holes are described by a two dimensional conformal field theory. This picture has been found to be extremely robust. In this paper it is argued that many essential features of the low energy effective theory can be inferred directly from a semiclassical analysis of the general Kerr-Newman solution of supersymmetric four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell gravity, without using string theory. We consider the absorption and emission of scalars with orbital angular momentum, which provide a sensitive probe of the black hole. We find that the semiclassical emission rates -including superradiant emission and greybody factors - for such scalars agree in striking detail with those computed in the effective conformal field theory, in both four and five dimensions. Also the value of the quantum mass gap to the lowest-lying excitation of a charge-$Q$ black hole, $E_{gap}=1/8Q^3$ in Planck units, can be derived without knowledge of fundamental string theory.Comment: 24 pages, no figures. Typos corrected, some comments adde

Microscopic Entropy of N=2 Extremal Black Holes

String theory is used to compute the microscopic entropy for several examples of black holes in compactifications with $N=2$ supersymmetry. Agreement with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the moduli-independent $N=2$ area formula is found in all cases.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, uses harvma

State/Operator Correspondence in Higher-Spin dS/CFT

A recently conjectured microscopic realization of the dS$_4$/CFT$_3$ correspondence relating Vasiliev's higher-spin gravity on dS$_4$ to a Euclidean $Sp(N)$ CFT$_3$ is used to illuminate some previously inaccessible aspects of the dS/CFT dictionary. In particular it is argued that states of the boundary CFT$_3$ on $S^2$ are holographically dual to bulk states on geodesically complete, spacelike $R^3$ slices which terminate on an $S^2$ at future infinity. The dictionary is described in detail for the case of free scalar excitations. The ground states of the free or critical $Sp(N)$ model are dual to dS-invariant plane-wave type vacua, while the bulk Euclidean vacuum is dual to a certain mixed state in the CFT$_3$. CFT$_3$ states created by operator insertions are found to be dual to (anti) quasinormal modes in the bulk. A norm is defined on the $R^3$ bulk Hilbert space and shown for the scalar case to be equivalent to both the Zamolodchikov and pseudounitary C-norm of the $Sp(N)$ CFT$_3$.Comment: 24 page

Macroscopic and Microscopic Entropy of Near-Extremal Spinning Black Holes

A seven parameter family of five-dimensional black hole solutions depending on mass, two angular momenta, three charges and the asymptotic value of a scalar field is constructed. The entropy is computed as a function of these parameters both from the Bekenstein-Hawking formula and from the degeneracies of the corresponding D-brane states in string theory. The expressions agree at and to leading order away from extremality.Comment: 7 pages, harvma

Bubbling solutions, entropy enhancement and the fuzzball proposal

In this short note we explain the main idea of the work done in arXiv:0804.4487[hep-th] and arXiv:0812.2942[hep-th]. We present a family of black hole microstates, the bubbling solutions. We then explain how supertubes placed in such backgrounds have their entropy enhanced by the presence of the background dipole charges. This indicates this could account for a large amount in the entropy of the three charge black hole.Comment: 2 pages, contribution to the Cargese 2008 proceedings: Theory and Particle Physics: the LHC perspective and beyon

Classical central extension for asymptotic symmetries at null infinity in three spacetime dimensions

The symmetry algebra of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity in three dimensions is the semi-direct sum of the infinitesimal diffeomorphisms on the circle with an abelian ideal of supertranslations. The associated charge algebra is shown to admit a non trivial classical central extension of Virasoro type closely related to that of the anti-de Sitter case.Comment: 4 sign mistakes due to a change of conventions are corrected in section 2, none of the conclusions are affected, takes precedence over published version, including corrigendu