English

Plumbing the Abyss: Black Ring Microstates

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We construct the first smooth, horizonless ``microstate geometries'' that have the same charges, dipole charges and angular momenta as a BPS black ring whose horizon is macroscopic. These solutions have exactly the same geometry as black rings, except that the usual infinite throat is smoothly capped off at a very large depth. If the solutions preserve a U(1)x U(1) isometry, then this depth is limited by flux quantization but if this symmetry is broken then the throat can be made arbitrarily deep by tuning classical, geometric moduli. Interpreting these ``abysses'' (smooth microstate geometries of arbitrary depth) from the point of view of the AdS-CFT correspondence suggests two remarkable alternatives: either stringy effects can eliminate very large regions of a smooth low-curvature supergravity solution, or the D1-D5-P CFT has quantum critical points. The existence of solutions whose depth depends on moduli also enables us to define ``entropy elevators,'' and these provide a new tool for studying the entropy of BPS and near-BPS black holes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0706.3786,
  title  = {Plumbing the Abyss: Black Ring Microstates},
  author = {Iosif Bena and Chih-Wei Wang and Nicholas P. Warner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.3786},
  year   = {2008}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T08:42:07.265Z