World-Sheet Duality, Space-Time Foam, and the Quantum Fate of a Stringy Black Hole

Abstract

We interpret Minkowski black holes as world-sheet {\it spikes } which are related by world-sheet { \it duality} to {\it vortices } that correspond to Euclidean black holes. These world-sheet defects induce defects in the gauge fields of the corresponding coset Wess-Zumino descriptions of spherically-symmetric black holes. The low-temperature target space-time foam is a Minkowski black hole (spike) plasma with confined Euclidean black holes (vortices). The high-temperature phase is a {\it dense} vortex plasma described by a topological gauge field theory on the world-sheet, which possesses enhanced symmetry as in the target space-time singularity at the core of a black hole. Quantum decay via higher-genus effects induces a back-reaction which causes a Minkowski black hole to lose mass until it is indistinguishable from intrinsic fluctuations in the space-time foam.

16 pages, CERN-TH.6534/92, (correction of a minor typographical error on page 12)

References in corpus (5)

• On the connection between Quantum Mechanics and the geometry of two-dimensional strings
• Topological Field Theories and Space-Time Singularity
• Quantum Mechanics and Black Holes in Four-Dimensional String Theory
• On the Evaporation of Black Holes in String Theory
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Exact Duality Symmetries in CFT and String Theory
• Time-Dependent Vacuum Energy Induced by D-Particle Recoil
• World-Sheet formulation of M theory
• Time-dependent perturbations in two-dimensional String Black Holes
• As time goes by
• Confinement in Gauge Theories from the Condensation of World-Sheet Defects in Liouville String
• Naked Singularities in Four-Dimensional String Backgrounds