Duality and black hole partition functions
arXiv:hep-th/0703036 · doi:10.1142/9789812834300_0541
Abstract
Supersymmetric black holes provide an excellent theoretical laboratory to test ideas about quantum gravity in general and black hole entropy in particular. When four-dimensional supergravity is interpreted as the low-energy approximation of ten-dimensional string theory or eleven-dimensional M-theory, one has a microscopic description of the black hole which allows one to count microstates and to compare the result to the macroscopic (geometrical) entropy. Recently it has been conjectured that there is a very direct connection between the partition function of the topological string and a partition function for supersymmetric black holes. We review this idea and propose a modification which makes it compatible with electric-magnetic duality.
5 pages, based on talk given at the 11th Marcel Grossmann meeting, Berlin, July 23-29, 2006