Higher Dimensional Chern-Simons Theories and Topological Black Holes

Abstract

It has been recently pointed out that black holes of constant curvature with a "chronological singularity" can be constructed in any spacetime dimension. These black holes share many common properties with the 2+1 black hole. In this contribution we give a brief summary of these new black holes and consider them as solutions of a Chern-Simons gravity theory. We also provide a brief introduction to some aspects of higher dimensional Chern-Simons theories.

13 pages, Latex. Talk given at the Conference "Quantum Mechanics of Fundamental Systems VI", Santiago, Chile, Aug 1997