Supersymmetric black holes in string theory

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in understanding supersymmetric black holes within string theory, focusing on their entropy, solutions, and connections to topological strings, highlighting the role of higher derivative corrections.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of supersymmetric black holes in string theory, emphasizing the importance of higher derivative corrections and the relation to topological string theory.

Findings

Black hole entropy in string theory is linked to topological string partition functions.

Higher derivative corrections are crucial for accurate black hole entropy calculations.

The attractor mechanism plays a key role in understanding black hole solutions.

Abstract

We review recent developments concerning supersymmetric black holes in string theory. After a general introduction to the laws of black hole mechanics and to black hole entropy in string theory, we discuss black hole solutions in N=2 supergravity, special geometry, the black hole attractor equations and the underlying variational principle. Special attention is payed to the crucial role of higher derivative corrections. Finally we discuss black hole partition functions and their relation to the topological string, mainly from the supergravity perspective. We try to summarize the state of art and discuss various open questions and problems.