On black holes in string theory
Abstract
This thesis investigates black holes in string theory through string amplitudes and
through gauge-gravity duality. The research presented in this thesis supports the
claim that string theory is capable of a consistent quantum-mechanical description
of black holes and develops techniques which may prove useful in testing this claim
in new scenarios.
The thesis comprises two parts. Part I describes novel disk amplitudes which
derive the supergravity elds sourced by a D-brane with a travelling wave, and
Part II describes free particle structures arising in a matrix model which is related
through gauge-gravity duality to asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes.
The disk amplitudes calculated in Part I provide a direct connection between
the microscopic worldsheet description of a D-brane with a travelling wave and
its macroscopic supergravity description. A D-brane carrying a travelling wave
can be mapped via string dualities to the two-charge D1-D5 black hole and this
research opens up the possibility to use these techniques to study the three-charge
D1-D5-P black hole.
Part II of the thesis identi es free particle descriptions of non-holomorphic operators
in a complex matrix model derived from dimensional reduction of N = 4
Super-Yang-Mills theory. This research generalizes the free particle description in
the half-BPS sector of this theory which was realized in supergravity and enabled
studies of the microscopics of singular geometries. The free particle descriptions
have been derived at zero gauge coupling; if these or similar structures are also
present at strong coupling this research could be used to study the microscopics
of non-extremal asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes.
Authors
Turton, David J.Collections
- Theses [3702]