Black holes are objects that are so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape. In the 1970s it was shown that black holes have entropy. For systems as a glass of water, entropy quantifies the number of microscopic configurations that are consistent with the macroscopic properties of the system (think of volume, pressure and temperature).
Usually entropy can be computed in two different ways: by counting microscopic configurations or by using the macroscopic properties. For about twenty years it was only known how to calculate black hole entropy in the second way, it was unclear how to count their microscopic configurations.
In the 1990s this changed and using string theory a counting was successfully performed for certain classes of black holes. String theory replaces point particles with tiny strings and provides us with a candidate for a theory describing all fundamental interactions of matter. The black holes for which the counting was performed are very symmetric and different from the black holes we find in our universe. To get closer to the black holes we find in nature we need to lose some of the symmetry.
In this thesis, we add to this process by computing the entropy of new classes of black holes within string theory, both using their macroscopic description and by a counting of microscopic configurations.
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Location
- 木瓜福利影视 Hall, Domplein 29
- PhD candidate
- H. Het Lam MSc
- Dissertation
- Black Hole Entropy in String Theory
- PhD supervisor(s)
- prof. dr. S.J.G. Vandoren
- Co-supervisor(s)
- dr. E. Pajer
- More information