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Black Holes in String Theory

Juan M. Maldacena
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Abstract

This thesis is devoted to trying to find a microscopic quantum description of black holes. We consider black holes in string theory which is a quantum theory of gravity. We find that the ``area law'' black hole entropy for extremal and near-extremal charged black holes arises from counting microscopic configurations. We study black holes in five and four spacetime dimensions. We calculate the Hawking temperature and give a physical picture of the Hawking decay process. Hopefully, the reader will find here a moderately self contained review of D-branes and string theory applied to black hole physics.

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Juan M. Maldacena. 1996-08-20. Black Holes in String Theory. https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9607235

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