AdS_2/CFT_1 correspondence leads to a prescription for computing the degeneracy of black hole states in terms of path integral over string fields living on the near horizon geometry of the black hole. In this paper we make use of the enhanced supersymmetries of the near horizon geometry and localization techniques to argue that the path integral receives contribution only from a special class of string field configurations which are invariant under a subgroup of the supersymmetry transformations. We identify saddle points which are invariant under this subgroup. We also use our analysis to show that the integration over infinite number of zero modes generated by the asymptotic symmetries of AdS_2 generate a finite contribution to the path integral.
We study conditions under which an odd symmetry of the integrand leads to localization of the corresponding integral over a (super)manifold. We also show that in many cases these conditions guarantee exactness of the stationary phase approximation of such integrals.
We construct rigid supersymmetric theories for interacting vector and tensor multiplets on six-dimensional Riemannian spin manifolds. Analyzing the Killing spinor equations, we derive the constraints on these theories. To this end, we reformulate the conditions for supersymmetry as a set of necessary and sufficient conditions on the geometry. The formalism is illustrated with a number of examples, including manifolds that are hermitian, strong Kaehler with torsion. As an application, we show that the path integral of pure super Yang-Mills theory defined on a Calabi-Yau threefold M_6 localizes …
We study the one-loop corrections to the effective on-shell action of N=2 supergravity in the background of the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole. In the extreme case the contributions from graviton, gravitino and photon to the one-loop corrections to the entropy are shown to cancel. This gives the first explicit example of the supersymmetric non-renormalization theorem for the on-shell action (entropy) for BPS configurations which admit Killing spinors. We display the residual supersymmetry of the perturbations of a general supersymmetric theory in a bosonic BPS background.
In these lectures we introduce some of the principles and techniques that are relevant for the determination of the entropy of extremal black holes by either string theory or supergravity. We consider such black holes with N=2 and N=4 supersymmetry, explaining how agreement is obtained for both the terms that are leading and those that are subleading in the limit of large charges. We discuss the relevance of these results in the context of the more recent developments.
In the previous work, it was shown that, in supersymmetric (matrix) discretized quantum mechanics, inclusion of an external field twisting the boundary condition of fermions enables us to discuss spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY) in the path-integral formalism in a well-defined way. In the present work, we continue investigating the same systems from the points of view of localization and Nicolai mapping. The localization is studied by changing of integration variables in the path integral, which is applicable whether or not SUSY is explicitly broken. We examine in detail how the in…
Following the work of Sen, we consider the correspondence between extremal black holes and string states in the context of the entropy. We obtain and study properties of electrically charged black hole backgrounds of tree level heterotic string theory compactified on a $p$ dimensional torus, for $D=(10-p)=4 \ldots 9$. We study in particular a one--parameter extremal class of these black holes, the members of which are shown to be supersymmetric. We find that the entropy of such an extremal black hole, when calculated at the stringy stretched horizon, scales in such a way that it can be identif…
We analyze in detail the equivariant supersymmetry of the $G/G$ model. In spite of the fact that this supersymmetry does not model the infinitesimal action of the group of gauge transformations, localization can be established by standard arguments. The theory localizes onto reducible connections and a careful evaluation of the fixed point contributions leads to an alternative derivation of the Verlinde formula for the $G_{k}$ WZW model. We show that the supersymmetry of the $G/G$ model can be regarded as an infinite dimensional realization of Bismut's theory of equivariant Bott-Chern currents…
Due to the attractor mechanism, the entropy of an extremal black hole does not vary continuously as we vary the asymptotic values of various moduli fields. Using this fact we argue that the entropy of an extremal black hole in string theory, calculated for a range of values of the asymptotic moduli for which the microscopic theory is strongly coupled, should match the statistical entropy of the same system calculated for a range of values of the asymptotic moduli for which the microscopic theory is weakly coupled. This argument does not rely on supersymmetry and applies equally well to nonsupe…
This addendum adds some comments to a published paper (B. Schroer, Class. Quantum Grav. 23, (2006) 5227) on area density of localization-entropy. The setting of holography and localization-entropy is generalized to double cones and black holes with bifurcate Killing horizons. PACS: 11.10.-z, 11.25.Hf, 04.70.Dy
We study supersymmetric gauge theories with an R-symmetry, defined on non-compact, hyperbolic, Riemannian three-manifolds, focusing on the case of a supersymmetry-preserving quotient of Euclidean AdS$_3$. We compute the exact partition function in these theories, using the method of localization, thus reducing the problem to the computation of one-loop determinants around a supersymmetric locus. We evaluate the one-loop determinants employing three different techniques: an index theorem, the method of pairing of eigenvalues, and the heat kernel method. Along the way, we discuss aspects of supe…
The role of Bertotti-Robinson geometry in the attractor mechanism of extremal black holes is described for the case of N = 2 supersymmetry. Its implication for a model-independent derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula is discussed.
We construct a large class of gauge theories with extended supersymmetry on four-dimensional manifolds with a Killing vector field and isolated fixed points. We extend previous results limited to super Yang-Mills theory to general $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories including hypermultiplets. We present a general framework encompassing equivariant Donaldson-Witten theory and Pestun's theory on $S^4$ as two particular cases. This is achieved by expressing fields in cohomological variables, whose features are dictated by supersymmetry and require a generalized notion of self-duality for two-forms and…
We use the techniques of supersymmetric localization to compute the BPS black hole entropy in N=2 supergravity. We focus on the n_v+1 vector multiplets on the black hole near horizon background which is AdS_2 x S^2 space. We find the localizing saddle point of the vector multiplets by solving the localization equations, and compute the exact one loop partition function on the saddle point. Furthermore, we propose the appropriate functional integration measure. Through this measure, the one loop determinant is written in terms of the radius of the physical metric, which depends on the localizin…
String theory is used to count microstates of four-dimensional extremal black holes in compactifications with $N=4$ and $N=8$ supersymmetry. The result agrees for large charges with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.
Supersymmetric localization has lead to remarkable progress in computing quantum corrections to BPS black hole entropy. The program has been successful especially for computing perturbative corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking area formula. In this work, we consider non-perturbative corrections related to polar states in the Rademacher expansion, which describes the entropy in the microcanonical ensemble. We propose that these non-perturbative effects can be identified with a new family of saddles in the localization of the quantum entropy path integral. We argue that these saddles, which are…
We consider static black holes, which are bosonic solutions of supersymmetric theories. We will show that supersymmetry provides a natural framework for a discussion of various properties of such static black holes. The most fundamental property of simple global supersymmetry, non-negativeness of the energy, is generalized in the black hole theory to cosmic censorship. The SUSY classification of static black holes will be presented in terms of central charges of supersymmetry algebra. The mass, the temperature and the entropy of these black holes are simple functions of supersymmetry charges. …
We study N=2 superconformal theories on Euclidean and Lorentzian four-manifolds with a view toward applications to holography and localization. The conditions for supersymmetry are equivalent to a set of differential constraints including a "generalised" conformal Killing spinor equation depending on various background fields. We solve these equations in the general case and give very explicit expressions for the auxiliary fields that we need to turn on to preserve some supersymmetry. As opposed to what has been observed for the N=1 case, the conditions for unbroken supersymmetry turn out to b…
We find the most general bosonic solution to the localization equations describing the contributions to the quantum entropy of supersymmetric black holes in four-dimensional N=2 supergravity coupled to n_v vector multiplets. This requires the analysis of the BPS equations of the corresponding off-shell supergravity (including fluctuations of the auxiliary fields) with AdS2 \times S2 attractor boundary conditions. Our work completes and extends the results of arXiv:1012.0265 that were obtained for the vector multiplet sector, to include the fluctuations of all the fields of the off-shell superg…
String theory is used to compute the microscopic entropy for several examples of black holes in compactifications with $N=2$ supersymmetry. Agreement with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the moduli-independent $N=2$ area formula is found in all cases.
A simple argument shows that negative energy cannot be isolated far away from positive energy in a conformal field theory and strongly constrains its possible dispersal. This is also required by consistency with the Bekenstein bound written in terms of the positivity of relative entropy. We prove a new form of the Bekenstein bound based on the monotonicity of the relative entropy, involving a "free" entropy enclosed in a region which is highly insensitive to space-time entanglement, and show that it further improves the negative energy localization bound.
We consider supersymmetric gauge theories on round 3-sphere with a certain background gauge field. The Lagrangians break the usual symmetry because the background gauge field which we have turned on violates the isometry. In order to maintain the supersymmetry, we choose unfamiliar charged Killing spinors as N = 2 SUSY parameters. We perform localization calculous within this setup and find the double sine function as we expected. We comment on more direct relationship between theories on round sphere and squashed sphere via Weyl transformation.
We use localization to evaluate the functional integral of string field theory on AdS_2xS^2 background corresponding to the near horizon geometry of supersymmetric black holes in 4d compactifications with N=2 supersymmetry. In particular, for a theory containing n_v + 1 vector multiplets, we show that the functional integral localizes exactly onto an ordinary integral over a finite-dimensional submanifold in the field space labeling a continuous family of instanton solutions in which auxiliary fields in the vector multiplets are excited with nontrivial dependence on AdS_2 coordinates. These lo…
We develop the method of Green's function to evaluate the one loop determinants that arise in localization of supersymmetric field theories on $AdS$ spaces. The theories we study have at least ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry and normalisable boundary conditions are consistent with supersymmetry. We then show that under general assumptions the variation of the one loop determinant with respect to the localizing background reduces to a total derivative. Therefore it receives contributions only from the origin of $AdS$ and from asymptotic infinity. From expanding both the Greens function and the quadr…
We apply equivariant localization to supersymmetric quantum mechanics and show that the partition function localizes on the instantons of the theory. Our construction of equivariant cohomology for SUSY quantum mechanics is different than the ones that already exist in the literature. A hidden bosonic symmetry is made explicit and the supersymmetry is extended. New bosonic symmetry is the square of the new fermionic symmetry. The D term is now the parameter of the bosonic symmetry. This construction provides us with an equivariant complex together with a Cartan differential and makes the use of…
We determine the general structure of quantum anomalies for the $R$-multiplet of four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric quantum field theories in the presence of background fields for an arbitrary number of Abelian flavor multiplets. By solving the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions for off-shell new minimal supergravity in four dimensions with an arbitrary number of Abelian vector multiplets, we compute the anomaly in the conservation of the supercurrent to leading non trivial order in the gravitino and vector multiplet fermions. We find that both $R$-symmetry and flavor anomalies ne…
We investigate the possibility of gravity localization on the brane in the context of supersymmetric theories. To realize this scenario one needs to find a theory with the supersymmetric flow stable in IR at two critical points, one with positive and the other with negative values of the superpotential. We perform a general study of the supersymmetric flow equations of gauged massless supergravity interacting with arbitrary number of vector multiplets and demonstrate that localization of gravity does not occur. The same conclusion remains true when tensor multiplets are included. We analyze al…
$P$-brane solutions of low-energy string actions have traditionally provided the first evidence for the existence of string dualities, in which fundamental and solitonic $p$-branes are identified with perturbative and non-perturbative BPS states. In this talk we discuss the composite nature of solutions, which allows for the interpretation of general solutions as bound states or intersections of maximally supersymmetric fundamental constituents. This feature lies at the heart of the recent success of string theory in reproducing the Beckenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula.
We perform a systematic study of S-duality for ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric non-linear abelian theories on a curved manifold. Localization can be used to compute certain supersymmetric observables in these theories. We point out that localization and S-duality acting as a Legendre transform are not compatible. For these theories S-duality should be interpreted as Fourier transform and we provide some evidence for this. We also suggest the notion of a coholomological prepotential for an abelian theory that gives the same partition function as a given non-abelian supersymmetric theory.
Using AdS/CFT correspondence and the Euclidean action formalism for black hole entropy Kraus and Larsen have argued that the entropy of a BTZ black hole in three dimensional supergravity with (0,4) supersymmetry does not receive any correction from higher derivative terms in the action. We argue that as a consequence of AdS/CFT correspondence the action of a three dimensional supergravity with (0,4) supersymmetry cannot receive any higher derivative correction except for those which can be removed by field redefinition. The non-renormalization of the entropy then follows as a consequence of th…
In this thesis, we examine in detail the notion of black hole entropy in Quantum Field Theories, with a specific focus on supersymmetric black holes and the perturbative and non-perturbative quantum corrections to the classical area-law of Bekenstein-Hawking. To examine such corrections, we employ the formalism of Sen's Quantum Entropy Function where the complete quantum entropy of a supersymmetric black hole in theories of supergravity is defined as a path-integral in the near-horizon region of the black hole. Evaluation of this path-integral can then be conducted exactly using localization c…
We develop an effective superpotential formalism for the SU(2)$\times$U(1) invariant sector of $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauged supergravity in five dimensions with a U(1)$^3$ Fayet-Iliopoulos gauging, and determine the exact superpotential that describes all 1/4 BPS solutions in this sector. This includes the Gutowski-Reall black holes, but also a much broader class of solutions with a squashed $S^3$, magnetic flux and vector multiplet sources, as well as complex Euclidean BPS saddles. Some of these solutions are known only numerically, but the exact superpotential allows us to analytically evaluate th…
Macroscopic computation of the degeneracy / index of a BPS black hole requires carrying out string theory path integral over the near horizon geometry of the black hole. It has been suggested that the path integral can be localized to a finite dimensional subspace using the unbroken supersymmetries of the near horizon geometry. We discuss several issues that need to be resolved before one can declare victory: (1) delta-function normalizable eigenmodes of the kinetic operator do not form a representation of the supersymmetry algebra since the Killing spinors grow exponentially as we approach th…
We review recent developments in special geometry and explain its role in the theory of supersymmetric black holes. To make this article self-contained, a short introduction to black holes is given, with emphasis on the laws of black hole mechanics and black hole entropy. We also summarize the existing results on the para-complex version of special geometry, which occurs in Euclidean supersymmetry. The role of real coordinates in special geometry is illustrated, and we briefly indicate how Euclidean supersymmetry can be used to study stationary black hole solutions via dimensional reduction ov…
Three dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories are often in a gapped phase, in which SUSY is spontaneously broken, if all the matter fields are massive and decoupled in the low energy. We study this phase in the large $N$ limit using the localization technique for the theory on the ellipsoid, which interpolates the round three sphere and the flat space compactified on $S^1$. We find a large $N$ saddle point solution for the gauge theory with some massive matter fields. This solution gives a vanishing (generalized) Polyakov loop in the flat space limit, thus, it corresponds to the confining ph…
We present an explicit formulation of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories from $\D=$ 5 to 10 dimensions in the familiar $\N=1,\D=4$ superspace. This provides the rules for globally supersymmetric model building with extra dimensions and in particular allows us to simply write down $\N=1$ SUSY preserving interactions between bulk fields and fields localized on branes. We present a few applications of the formalism by way of illustration, including supersymmetric ``shining'' of bulk fields, orbifolds and localization of chiral fermions, anomaly inflow and super-Chern-Simons theories.
We calculate the elliptic genus of two dimensional abelian gauged linear sigma models with (2,2) supersymmetry using supersymmetric localization. The matter sector contains charged chiral multiplets as well as Stueckelberg fields coupled to the vector multiplets. These models include theories that flow in the infrared to non-linear sigma models with target spaces that are non-compact Kahler manifolds with U(N) isometry and with an asymptotically linear dilaton direction. The elliptic genera are the modular completions of mock Jacobi forms that have been proposed recently using complementary ar…
We explain why multi-centered black hole configurations where at least one of the centers is a large black hole do not contribute to the indexed degeneracies in theories with N=4 supersymmetry. This is a consequence of the fact that such configurations, although supersymmetric, belong to long supermultiplets. As a result, there is no entropy enigma in N=4 theories, unlike in N=2 theories.
We study $\mathcal{N}=2$ supergravity with higher-derivative corrections that preserve the $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry and show that Kerr-Newman black holes are solutions to these theories. Modifications of the black hole entropy due to the higher derivatives are universal and apply even in the BPS and Schwarzschild limits. Our solutions and their entropy are greatly simplified by supersymmetry of the theory even though the black holes generally do not preserve any of the supersymmetry.
We consider 3d N>= 2 superconformal field theories on a branched covering of a three-sphere. The Renyi entropy of a CFT is given by the partition function on this space, but conical singularities break the supersymmetry preserved in the bulk. We turn on a compensating R-symmetry gauge field and compute the partition function using localization. We define a supersymmetric observable, called the super Renyi entropy, parametrized by a real number q. We show that the super Renyi entropy is duality invariant and reduces to entanglement entropy in the q -> 1 limit. We provide some examples.
We find a general principle which allows one to compute the area of the horizon of N=2 extremal black holes as an extremum of the central charge. One considers the ADM mass equal to the central charge as a function of electric and magnetic charges and moduli and extremizes this function in the moduli space (a minimum corresponds to a fixed point of attraction). The extremal value of the square of the central charge provides the area of the horizon, which depends only on electric and magnetic charges. The doubling of unbroken supersymmetry at the fixed point of attraction for N=2 black holes ne…
We point out that gravity on dS_n gives rise to a localized graviton on dS_{n-1}. This way one can derive a recursion relation for the entropy of dS spaces, which might have interesting implications for dS holography. In the same spirit we study domain walls interpolating between dS spaces with different cosmological constant. Our observation gives an easy way to calculate what fraction of the total entropy can be accessed by an observer stuck on the bubble wall.
Holographic renormalization is a systematic procedure for regulating divergences in observables in asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes. For dual boundary field theories which are supersymmetric it is natural to ask whether this defines a supersymmetric renormalization scheme. Recent results in localization have brought this question into sharp focus: rigid supersymmetry on a curved boundary requires specific geometric structures, and general arguments imply that BPS observables, such as the partition function, are invariant under certain deformations of these structures. One can then ask if …
In supersymmetric theories the mass of any state is bounded below by the values of some of its charges. The corresponding bounds in case of Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordström black holes are known to coincide with the requirement that naked singularities be absent. Here we investigate charged dilaton black holes in this context. We show that the extreme solutions saturate the supersymmetry bound of $N=4\ d=4$ supergravity, or dimensionally reduced superstring theory. Specifically, we have shown that extreme dilaton black holes, with electric and magnetic charges, admit super-covariantly cons…
We show that in any two dimensional conformal field theory with (2, 2) supersymmetry one can define a supersymmetric analog of the usual Renyi entropy of a spatial region A. It differs from the Renyi entropy by a universal function (which we compute) of the central charge, Renyi parameter n and the geometric parameters of A. In the limit $n \to1$ it coincides with the entanglement entropy. Thus, it contains the same information as the Renyi entropy but its computation only involves correlation functions of chiral and anti-chiral operators. We also show that this quantity appears naturally in s…
This thesis focuses mainly on understanding the origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for a class of four- and five-dimensional BPS black holes in string/M-theory. To this aim, important ingredients are holography and supersymmetric localization. Using the method of supersymmetric localization, the Euclidean path integrals for supersymmetric field theories on $Σ_\mathfrak{g} \times T^{n}$ $(n=1,2)$, with at least four real supercharges, can be reduced to a matrix integral that depends on background magnetic fluxes and chemical potentials for the global symmetries of the theory. This defines…
We study AdS/CFT with a Kaluza-Klein magnetic field in one plane. By appropriate choice of magnetic U(1), and by balancing the magnetic field against the background D field, we obtain a supersymmetric field theory. We find the dual geometry for an AdS_5 to AdS_3 x R^2 example, and we compare the moduli spaces and entropies. For the entropy, the interactions are important even at weak coupling. We also consider nonsupersymmetric embeddings of the U(1), and show that over a regime of parameter space all known instabilities appear to be absent, aside from a dilaton tadpole that may be removed in …
We analyze AdS$_5$ black holes that are nearly supersymmetric. They depart from the BPS limit in two distinct ways: a temperature takes them above extremality and a potential violates a certain constraint. We study the thermodynamics of these deformations and their interplay in detail. We discuss recent microscopic computations of BPS black hole entropy in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM and generalize methods to the nearBPS regime by relaxing constraints imposed by supersymmetry. The computations recover gravitational results from microscopics also for nearBPS black holes.
We analyze the localization equations relevant to the quantum entropy of spinning supersymmetric black holes in five-dimensional asymptotically flat space. The precise problem is to classify all solutions to the off-shell supersymmetry equations in N=2 supergravity coupled to $n_\text{v}+1$ vector multiplets around the near-horizon black hole. We rewrite these equations in terms of the bosonic spinor bilinears that exist in the geometry for an arbitrary background. We then focus on the vector multiplet fluctuations around the near-horizon attractor region of the supersymmetric black hole, and …
Using an appropriatly formulated holographic lightfront projection, we derive an area law for the localization-entropy caused by vacuum polarization on the horizon of a wedge region. Its area density has a simple kinematic relation to the volume extensive heat bath entropy of the lightfront algebra. Apart from a change of parametrization the infinite lighlike length contribution to the lightfront volume factor corresponds to the short-distance divergence of the area density of the localization entropy. This correspondence is a consequence of the conformal invariance of the lightfront holograph…
We review some results on the connection among supergravity central charges, BPS states and Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. In particular, N=2 supergravity in four dimensions is studied in detail. For higher N supergravities we just give an account of the general theory specializing the discussion to the N=8 case when one half of supersymmetry is preserved. We stress the fact that for extremal supergravity black holes the entropy formula is topological, that is the entropy turns out to be a moduli independent quantity and can be written in terms of invariants of the duality group of the supergravi…
In the context of N=8 supergravity we consider BPS black-holes that preserve 1/8 supersymmetry. It was shown in a previous paper that, modulo U-duality transformations of E_{7(7)} the most general solution of this type can be reduced to a black-hole of the STU model. In this paper we analize this solution in detail, considering in particular its embedding in one of the possible Special Kähler manifold compatible with the consistent truncations to N=2 supergravity, this manifold being the moduli space of the T^6/Z^3 orbifold, that is: SU(3,3)/SU(3)*U(3). This construction requires a crucial use…
We consider the entropy problem of AdS_3 black holes using the conformal field theory at the horizon. We observe that the supersymmetry is enhanced at the horizon of massless AdS_3 black hole. This allows us to determine the vacuum of the modular invariant conformal field theory to be the NS-ground state (which corresponds to AdS_3 spacetime). This is smoothly related to the R-ground state (corresponding to massless black hole) by a spectral flow, which can be understood as a superconformal transformation.
