Black Holes, Black Rings and their Microstates

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in constructing three-charge solutions in string theory and supergravity, including microstate geometries that mimic black holes and rings without horizons, shedding light on black hole microstates.

Contribution

It introduces new methods for constructing three-charge solutions and microstate geometries, linking them to boundary states in the D1-D5-P CFT.

Findings

Microstate geometries can have the same charges as black holes and rings but lack horizons.

Many microstate geometries are dual to boundary states in the same sector of the D1-D5-P CFT.

The methods enable systematic construction of smooth horizonless geometries.

Abstract

In this review article we describe some of the recent progress towards the construction and analysis of three-charge configurations in string theory and supergravity. We begin by describing the Born-Infeld construction of three-charge supertubes with two dipole charges, and then discuss the general method of constructing three-charge solutions in five dimensions. We explain in detail the use of these methods to construct black rings, black holes, as well as smooth microstate geometries with black hole and black ring charges, but with no horizon. We present arguments that many of these microstate geometries are dual to boundary states that belong to the same sector of the D1-D5-P CFT as the typical states. We end with an extended discussion of the implications of this work for the physics of black holes in string theory.