This PhD thesis is devoted to the study of supersymmetry preserving
background solutions of N=2 supergravity in 4 dimensions. The main contents are
divided into three major parts, briefly summarized as follows. Part I deals
with analysis of maximally supersymmetric configurations. Part II discusses BPS
black holes with Minkowski and anti-de Sitter (AdS) asymptotics. The main
topics in part III are superalgebras, BPS bounds and conserved charges for
asymptotically flat or AdS spacetimes. Most of the chapters are based on
previously published results with the exception of chapter 10 in part III,
which is genuinely new and discusses the superalgebras of black hole
configurations and their near-horizon geometries. A no-go theorem for static
BPS black holes in AdS is proven in theories without hypermultiplets and the
analogous situation in 5d is briefly explained.Comment: 209 pages; PhD thesis, defended 1 June 2012, advisor Stefan Vandoren;
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