Related papers: What prevents gravitational collapse in string the…
String theory on $AdS_3$ has a solvable single-trace irrelevant deformation that is closely related to $T\bar T$. For one sign of the coupling, it leads to an asymptotically linear dilaton spacetime, and a corresponding Hagedorn spectrum.…
We explain the need for a theory of quantum gravity and some general ideas about string theory, including the idea of the derivation of the Hawking Bekenstein entropy formula for extremal black holes. We then give a general description of…
We extend and refine a general method to extract the multipole moments of arbitrary stationary spacetimes and apply it to the study of a large family of regular horizonless solutions to $ {\cal N}{\,=\,}2$ four-dimensional supergravity…
In the Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity, the intrinsic spin of fermionic matter generates spacetime torsion and induces gravitational repulsion at extremely high densities. This repulsion prevents the collapsing spin-fluid…
The fuzzball proposal states that associated with a black hole of entropy S there are exp S horizon-free non-singular solutions that asymptotically look like the black hole but generically differ from the black hole up to the horizon scale.…
In Einstein gravity, matter with an arbitrarily small density can be a black hole. Pressure in the star diverges if size of the star is smaller than 9/8 of the Schwarzschild radius, implying the gravitational collapse into a black hole. By…
We show that in string theory, due to non-perturbative effects, there are cases in which two states that semi-classically are completely different, are in fact the same. One state cannot be excited without exciting the other; they are two…
We compute the dynamics of particles and strings falling into smooth horizonless spacetimes that match the Schwarzschild black hole but replace its horizon with a smooth cap in supergravity. The cap consists of a regular topological…
We consider 5D supersymmetric black holes in string theory compactifications that partially break supersymmetry. We compactify type IIB on $T^4$ and then further compactify on a circle with a duality twist to give Minkowski vacua preserving…
We consider black holes in Lorentz violating theories of massive gravity. We argue that in these theories black hole solutions are no longer universal and exhibit a large number of hairs. If they exist, these hairs probe the singularity…
We study the size distribution of very massive close string states and the typical string configuration as one slowly increase the string coupling, both in the case of zero and of non-zero Neveu-Schwarz charges. The computations are…
We find all the classical solutions (minimal surfaces) of open or closed strings in {\it any} two dimensional curved spacetime. As examples we consider the SL(2,R)/R two dimensional black hole, and any 4D black hole in the Schwarzschild…
It is noteworthy that limiting compactness of a static bounded configuration is characterized by a general principle: \textit{one, by equipartition of mass between inside and outside, and the other by vanishing of energy inside.} The former…
In a gravitational theory with a massless photon the maximum charge-to-mass ratio of black holes approaches the prediction of the Einstein-Maxwell theory as black hole mass increases: $Q_{\rm ext}/M =1+ \alpha/M^2$ for some constant…
An accelerating observer sees a thermal bath of radiation at the Hawking temperature which is proportional to the acceleration. Also, in string theory there is a Hagedorn temperature beyond which one cannot go without an infinite amount of…
In a universe whose elementary constituents are point particles there does not seem to be any obvious mechanism for avoiding the initial singularities in physical quantities in the standard model of cosmology. In contrast in string theory…
Black holes whose near-horizon geometries are locally, but not necessarily globally, AdS$_3$ (three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space) are considered. Using the fact that quantum gravity on AdS$_3$ is a conformal field theory, we…
We evaluate the probability that a loop of string that has spontaneously nucleated during inflation will form a black hole upon collapse, after the end of inflation. We then use the observational bounds on the density of primordial black…
Thin enough black strings are unstable to growing ripples along their length, eventually pinching and forming a naked singularity on the horizon. We investigate how string theory can resolve this singularity. First, we study the…
We formulate the basic postulate of pre-big bang cosmology as one of ``asymptotic past triviality'', by which we mean that the initial state is a generic perturbative solution of the tree-level low-energy effective action. Such a…