Counting Dyons in N=8 String Theory

The near horizon geometry of four-dimensional black holes in the dilute gas regime is AdS_3 x S^2, and the global symmetry group is SU(2) x USp(6). This is exploited to calculate their perturbation spectrum using group theoretical methods. The result is interpreted in terms of three extreme M5-branes, orthogonally intersecting over a common string. We also consider N=8 black holes in five dimensions, and compute the spectrum by explicit decoupling of the equations of motion, ...

We show that the system of $k$ NS5-branes wrapping $\mathbb{T}^4\times S^1$ has non-trivial vacuum structure. Different vacua have different spectra of 1/4 BPS states that carry momentum and winding around the $S^1$. In one vacuum, such states are described by black holes; in another, they can be thought of as perturbative BPS states in Double Scaled Little String Theory. In general, both kinds of states are present. We compute the degeneracy of perturbative BPS states exactl...

The dominant contribution to the semicanonical partition function of dyonic black holes of N=4 string theory is computed for generic charges, generalizing recent results of Shih and Yin. The result is compared to the black hole free energy obtained from the conjectured relation to topological strings. If certain perturbative corrections are included agreement is found to subleading order. These corrections modify the conjectured relation and implement covariance with respect ...

In these notes we review the theory of the microscopic modeling of the 5-dim. black hole of type IIB string theory in terms of the $D1-D5$ brane system. The emphasis here is more on the brane dynamics rather than on supergravity solutions. We present a discussion of the low energy brane dynamics and account for black hole thermodynamics and Hawking radiation rates. These considerations are valid in the regime of supergravity due to the non-renormalization of the low energy dy...

We present a counting of microstates of a class of dyonic BPS black holes in AdS$_4$ which precisely reproduces their Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The counting is performed in the dual boundary description, that provides a non-perturbative definition of quantum gravity, in terms of a twisted and mass-deformed ABJM theory. We evaluate its twisted index and propose an extremization principle to extract the entropy, which reproduces the attractor mechanism in gauged supergravity.

We find extremal four dimensional black holes with finite area constructed entirely from intersecting D-branes. We argue that the microscopic degeneracy of these configurations agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula. The absence of solitonic objects in these configurations may make them useful for dynamical studies of black holes.

The exact entropy of two-charge supersymmetric black holes in N=4 string theories is computed to all orders using Wald's formula and the supersymmetric attractor equations with an effective action that includes the relevant higher curvature terms. Classically, these black holes have zero area but the attractor equations are still applicable at the quantum level. The quantum corrected macroscopic entropy agrees precisely with the microscopic counting for an infinite tower of f...

N=4 supersymmetric string theories contain negative discriminant states whose numbers are known precisely from microscopic counting formulae. On the macroscopic side, these results can be reproduced by regarding these states as multi-centered black hole configurations provided we make certain identification of apparently distinct multi-centered black hole configurations according to a precise set of rules. In this paper we provide a physical explanation of such identification...

We give an elementary introduction to black holes in supergravity and string theory. The focus is on BPS solutions in four- and higher-dimensional supergravity and string theory. Basic ideas and techniques are explained in detail, including exercises with solutions.

We explain why multi-centered black hole configurations where at least one of the centers is a large black hole do not contribute to the indexed degeneracies in theories with N=4 supersymmetry. This is a consequence of the fact that such configurations, although supersymmetric, belong to long supermultiplets. As a result, there is no entropy enigma in N=4 theories, unlike in N=2 theories.