Related papers: How strings solve the apparent contradiction betwe…
Is string theory relevant to the black hole information problem? This is an attempt to clarify some of the issues involved. Presented at Strings '95.
The advent of gravitational waves and black hole imaging has opened a new window into probing the horizon scale of black holes. An important question is whether string theory results for black holes can predict interesting and observable…
We argue that one of the following statements must be true: (a) extensive violations of quantum information theory's additivity conjectures exist or (b) there exists a set of `disentangled' black hole microstates that can account for the…
We describe two puzzles that arise from a semiclassical treatment of near-extremal black hole thermodynamics. Both puzzles are resolved by realizing that quantum corrections become arbitrarily large at low temperatures, and we explain how…
It has been argued that the consistency of quantum theory with black hole physics requires nonlocality not present in ordinary effective field theory. We examine the extent to which such nonlocal effects show up in the perturbative S-matrix…
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…
This lecture surveys a few loosely related topics, ranging from the scarcity of quantum field theories -- and the role that this has played, and still plays, in physics -- to paradoxes involving black holes in soluble two dimensional string…
It is argued that the quantum correction to the mass of some very massive, nonsupersymmetric states vanishes in inverse proportion to their tree-level mass to all orders in string loops. This approximate nonrenormalization can explain the…
This paper reviews the role of black holes in the context of fundamental physics. After recalling some basic results stemming from Planckian string calculations, I present three examples of how stringy effects can improve the curvature…
Cosmic strings are topological defects thought to have formed early in the life of the universe. If such objects exist, a study of their interaction with black holes is of interest. The equations of motion of a cosmic string have the form…
A first-principles approach to the unitarity problem for black holes is systematically explored, based on the postulates of 1) quantum mechanics 2) the ability to approximately locally divide quantum gravitational systems into subsystems 3)…
Coherent states consist of superposition of infinite number of particles and do not have a classical analogue. We study their evolution in a FLRW cosmology and show that only when full quantum corrections are considered, they may survive…
It is conventionally believed that if a ball of matter of mass $M$ has a radius close to $2GM$ then it must collapse to a black hole. But string theory microstates (fuzzballs) have no horizon or singularity, and they do {\it not} collapse.…
We discuss whether black hole entropy counts short or long range microstates in quantum gravity. In brick wall and induced gravity models the entropy arises due to short distance correlations across the event horizon cut off at the Planck…
The leading classical low-energy effective actions for two-dimensional string theories have solutions describing the gravitational collapse of shells of matter into a black hole. It is shown that string loop corrections can be made…
We develop the general formalism for joining, splitting and interconnection of closed and open strings. As an application, we study examples of fundamental cosmic string collisions leading to gravitational collapse. We find that the…
The modeling of black holes is an important desideratum for any quantum theory of gravity. Not only is a classical black hole metric sought, but also agreement with the laws of black hole thermodynamics. In this paper, we describe how these…
Getting the mathematical rules for quantised black holes correctly is far from straightforward. Many earlier treatises got it not quite correctly. The general relativistic transformation linking the distant observer (who only detects…
It is explained that, for black holes much heavier than the Planck mass, black hole microstates can be well understood without string theory. It is essential to understand the antipodal identification at the horizon. We show why the…
String theory suggests that black hole microstates are quantum, horizon sized `fuzzballs', rather than smooth geometries with horizon. Radiation from fuzzballs can carry information and does not lead to information loss. But if we let a…