Elliptic genera from multi-centers

I show how elliptic genera for various Calabi-Yau threefolds may be understood from supergravity localization using the quantization of the phase space of certain multi-center configurations. I present a simple procedure that allows for the enumeration of all multi-center configurations contributing to the polar sector of the elliptic genera\textemdash explicitly verifying this in the cases of the quintic in $\mathbb{P}^4$, the sextic in $\mathbb{WP}_{(2,1,1,1,1)}$, the octic in $\mathbb{WP}_{(4,1,1,1,1)}$ and the dectic in $\mathbb{WP}_{(5,2,1,1,1)}$. With an input of the corresponding `single-center' indices (Donaldson-Thomas invariants), the polar terms have been known to determine the elliptic genera completely. I argue that this multi-center approach to the low-lying spectrum of the elliptic genera is a stepping stone towards an understanding of the exact microscopic states that contribute to supersymmetric single center black hole entropy in $\mathcal{N}=2$ supergravity.Comment: 30+1 pages, Published Versio

Soft graviton exchange and the information paradox

We show that there is a remarkable phase in quantum gravity where gravitational scattering amplitudes mediated by virtual gravitons can be calculated explicitly in effective field theory, when the impact parameter $b$ satisfies $L_{Pl}\ll b \lesssim R_S$, with $R_S$ being the Schwarzschild radius. This phase captures collisions with energies satisfying $\sqrt{s}\gg \gamma M_{Pl}$ (with $\gamma \sim M_{Pl}/M_{BH}$) near the horizon. We call this the black hole eikonal phase, in contrast to its flat space analogue where collisions are trans-Planckian. Hawking's geometric optics approximation neglects gravitational interactions near the horizon, and results in thermal occupation numbers in the Bogoliubov coefficients. We show that these interactions are mediated by graviton exchange in $2 \rightarrow 2$ scattering near the horizon, and explicitly calculate the S-matrix non-perturbatively in $M_{Pl}/M_{BH}$. This involves a re-summation of infinitely many ladder diagrams near the horizon, all mediated by virtual soft gravitons. The S-matrix turns out to be a pure phase upon this re-summation and is agnostic of Planckian physics. Our calculation suggests that non-renormalisability of gravity is irrelevant for a resolution of the information problem, and is agnostic of any specific ultraviolet completion. In contrast to the flat space eikonal limit, the black hole eikonal phase captures collisions of extremely low energy near the horizon.Comment: 54 pages + Appendices; v3: typos corrected, references added; v4: corrected eqns 4.81 and 4.8

Baby Universes born from the Void

We propose a novel construction of a third quantised baby universe Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}_{BU}$ for the quantum gravity path integral. In contrast to the original description of $\alpha$-parameters, both the bulk and boundary microscopic parameters are fixed in our proposal. Wormholes and baby universes appear due to refined observables, of the boundary dual quantum field theories, that crucially involve the space of representations of the gauge group. Irreducible representations, on which the path integral factorises, give rise to field theoretic superselection sectors and replace the $\alpha$ states.Comment: 10 pages; Extended version of an essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2022 Awards for Essays on Gravitatio

Charged particle scattering near the horizon

We study Maxwell theory, in the presence of charged scalar sources, near the black hole horizon in a partial wave basis. We derive the gauge field configuration that solves Maxwell equations in the near-horizon region of a Schwarzschild black hole when sourced by a charge density of a localised charged particle. This is the electromagnetic analog of the gravitational Dray-'t Hooft shockwave near the horizon. We explicitly calculate the S-matrix associated with this shockwave in the first quantised $1\rightarrow 1$ formalism. We develop a theory for scalar QED near the horizon using which we compute the electromagnetic eikonal S-matrix from elastic $2\rightarrow 2$ scattering of charged particles exchanging soft photons in the black hole eikonal limit. The resulting ladder resummation agrees perfectly with the result from the first quantised formalism, whereas the field-theoretic formulation allows for a computation of a wider range of amplitudes. As a demonstration, we explicitly compute sub-leading corrections that arise from four-vertices.Comment: 23 pages + appendices. v2: typos corrected, some clarifications added. v3: fixed an incorrect Feynman diagra

Modular bootstrap for D4-D2-D0 indices on compact Calabi-Yau threefolds

We investigate the modularity constraints on the generating series $h_r(\tau)$ of BPS indices counting D4-D2-D0 bound states with fixed D4-brane charge $r$ in type IIA string theory compactified on complete Intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds with $b_2 = 1$. For unit D4-brane, $h_1$ transforms as a (vector-valued) modular form under the action of $SL(2,Z)$ and thus is completely determined by its polar terms. We propose an Ansatz for these terms in terms of rank 1 Donaldson-Thomas invariants, which incorporates contributions from a single D6-anti-D6 pair. Using an explicit overcomplete basis of the relevant space of weakly holomorphic modular forms (valid for any $r$), we find that for 10 of the 13 allowed threefolds, the Ansatz leads to a solution for $h_1$ with integer Fourier coefficients, thereby predicting an infinite series of DT invariants.For $r > 1$, $h_r$ is mock modular and determined by its polar part together with its shadow. Restricting to $r = 2$, we use the generating series of Hurwitz class numbers to construct a series $h^{\rm an}_2$ with exactly the same modular anomaly as $h_2$, so that the difference $h_{2}-h^{\rm an}_2$ is an ordinary modular form fixed by its polar terms. For lack of a satisfactory Ansatz, we leave the determination of these polar terms as an open problem.Comment: 44 pages; a Mathematica notebook is provided as an ancillary fil

Soft graviton exchange and the information paradox

We show that there is a remarkable soft limit in quantum gravity where the information paradox is readily resolved due to virtual soft graviton exchange on the black hole horizon. This regime is where collision energies satisfy $\sqrt{s}\gg \gamma M_{Pl}$ (with $\gamma \sim M_{Pl}/M_{BH}$) near the horizon. We call this the black hole eikonal phase, in contrast to its flat space analogue where collisions are trans-Planckian. Hawking's geometric optics approximation neglects gravitational interactions near the horizon, and results in thermal occupation numbers in the Bogoliubov coefficients. We show that these interactions are mediated by graviton exchange in $2 \rightarrow 2$ scattering near the horizon, and explicitly calculate the S-matrix non-perturbatively in $M_{Pl}/M_{BH}$ and $\hbar$. This involves a re-summation of infinitely many ladder diagrams near the horizon, all mediated by virtual soft gravitons. The S-matrix turns out to be a pure phase \textit{only} upon this re-summation. The impact parameter $b$ satisfies $L_{Pl}\ll b \lesssim R_S$, where $R_S$ is the Schwarzschild radius; therefore, our results are agnostic of Planckian physics. Our calculation shows that non-renormalisability of gravity is irrelevant for a resolution of the information problem, and is agnostic of any specific ultraviolet completion. In contrast to the flat space eikonal limit, the black hole eikonal phase involves collisions of extremely low energy near the horizon, thereby avoiding firewalls for black holes much larger than Planck size

Quantum gravity on the black hole horizon

We study scattering on the black hole horizon in a partial wave basis, with an impact parameter of the order of the Schwarzschild radius or less. This resembles the strong gravity regime where quantum gravitational effects appear. The scattering is governed by an infinite number of virtual gravitons exchanged on the horizon. Remarkably, they can all be summed non-perturbatively in $\hbar$ and $\gamma \sim M_{Pl}/M_{BH}$. These results generalise those obtained from studying gravitational backreaction. Unlike in the eikonal calculations in flat space, the relevant centre of mass energy of the collisions is not necessarily Planckian; instead it is easily satisfied, $s \gg \gamma^2 M^2_{Pl}$, for semi-classical black holes. Therefore, infalling observers experience no firewalls. The calculation lends further support to the scattering matrix approach to quantum black holes, and is a second-quantised generalisation of the same