The Dark Side of String Theory: Black Holes and Black Strings

TL;DR

This paper reviews solutions in low energy string theory that describe black holes and black strings, focusing on their properties, generation methods, and known conformal field theories, highlighting their global structure and singularities.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of black hole and black string solutions in string theory, including solution-generating techniques and known conformal field theories.

Findings

Many solutions are obtained via simple transformations of Schwarzschild metric

Some solutions correspond to known exact conformal field theories

Properties like global structure, singularities, and Hawking temperature are discussed

Abstract

Solutions to low energy string theory describing black holes and black strings are reviewed. Many of these solutions can be obtained by applying simple solution generating transformations to the Schwarzschild metric. In a few cases, the corresponding exact conformal field theory is known. Various properties of these solutions are discussed including their global structure, singularities, and Hawking temperature. (This review is based on lectures given at the 1992 Trieste Spring School on String Theory and Quantum Gravity.)