Related papers: Fuzzballs and Microstate Geometries: Black-Hole St…

Solutions to low energy string theory describing black holes and black strings are reviewed. Many of these solutions can be obtained by applying simple solution generating transformations to the Schwarzschild metric. In a few cases, the…

A general formulation of the basic conflict of the information problem is given, encapsulated in a "black hole theorem." This is framed in a more general context than the usual one of quantum field theory on a background, and is based on…

In previous papers we have shown how strings in a two-dimensional target space reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity, thanks to an infinite set of conserved quantum numbers, ``W-hair'', associated with topological soliton-like…

Dynamical black-hole scenarios have been developed in loop quantum gravity in various ways, combining results from mini and midisuperspace models. In the past, the underlying geometry of space-time has often been expressed in terms of line…

For most black holes in string theory, the Schwarzschild radius in string units decreases as the string coupling is reduced. We formulate a correspondence principle, which states that (i) when the size of the horizon drops below the size of…

We propose a construction with which to resolve the black hole singularity and enable an anisotropic cosmology to emerge from the inside of the hole. The model relies on the addition of an S-brane to the effective action which describes the…

The past year has seen enormous progress in string theory. It has become clear that all of the different string theories are different limits of a single theory. Moreover, in certain limits, one obtains a new, eleven-dimensional structure…

The study of black holes in string theory has led to the discovery of deep and surprising connections between black holes and modular forms -- which are two classical, a priori unrelated, subjects. This article explains the main physical…

For extremal black holes the fuzzball conjecture says that the throat of the geometry ends in a quantum `fuzz', instead of being infinite in length with a horizon at the end. For the D1-D5 system we consider a family of sub-ensembles of…

I review some recent work (done in collaboration with G. Veneziano) which clarifies the existence of a correspondence between self-gravitating fundamental string states and Schwarzschild black holes. The main result is a detailed…

I solve the equations of the low-energy limit of string theory to obtain a solution corresponding to a microcanonical ensemble of highly-excited superstrings. This ``Superball of Strings'' is a static, spherically symmetric ``fuzzball'' of…

The discovery of the fact that black holes radiate particles and eventually evaporate led Hawking to pose the well-known information loss paradox. This paradox caused a long and serious debate since it claims that the fundamental laws of…

The statistical mechanics of black holes arbitrarily far from extremality is modeled by a gas of weakly interacting strings. As an effective low energy description of black holes the model provides a number of highly non-trivial consistency…

Within General Relativity, the unique stationary solution of an isolated black hole is the Kerr spacetime, which has a peculiar multipolar structure depending only on its mass and spin. We develop a general method to extract the multipole…

In a recent essay, we discussed the possibility of using polymer sizing to model the collapse of a single, long excited string to a black hole. In this letter, we apply this idea to bring further support to string/black hole correspondence.…

This note is to bring to the reader's attention the fact that general relativity and quantum mechanics differ from each other in one main aspect. General relativity is based on the diffeomorphism covariant formulation of the laws of physics…

We give some examples in which neglecting the interactions between particles or truncating the description of a black hole to the spherically symmetric mode leads to unphysical results. The restoration of the interactions and higher angular…

In the fuzzball paradigm the information paradox is resolved because the black hole is replaced by an object with no horizon. One may therefore ask if observations can distinguish a traditional hole from a fuzzball. We find: (a) It is very…

We examine an interesting set of recent proposals describing a `wormhole paradigm' for black holes. These proposals require that in some effective variables, semiclassical low-energy dynamics emerges at the horizon. We prove the `effective…

We investigate the black hole - string transition in the two-dimensional Lorentzian black hole system from the exact boundary states that describe the rolling D-brane falling down into the two-dimensional black hole. The black hole - string…