Massless black holes and conifolds in string theory

1995/04/18 by Andrew Strominger · 42 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Massless particle #Mathematical physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #String (physics) #String theory #Theoretical physics #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0550-3213(95)00287-3

published as Nucl.Phys.B451:96-108,1995 · 15 pages, harvmac

arxiv created 1995/04/18 · openalex publication_date 1995/09/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Low-energy effective field theories arising from Calabi-Yau string compactifications are generically inconsistent or ill-defined at the classical level because of conifold singularities in the moduli space. It is shown, given a plausible assumption on the degeneracies of black hole states, that for type II theories this inconsistency can be cured by nonperturbative quantum effects: the singularities are resolved by the appearance of massless Ramond-Ramond black holes. The Wilsonian effective action including these light black holes is smooth near the conifold, and the singularity is reproduced when they are integrated out. In order for a quantum effect to cure a classical inconsistency, it can not be suppressed by the usual string coupling g_s. It is shown how the required g_s dependence arises as a result of the peculiar couplings of Ramond-Ramond gauge fields to the dilaton.

Citations

• Electric-magnetic duality, monopole condensation, and confinement in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory
• 4-Dimensional black holes from Kaluza-Klein theories
• A pair of Calabi-Yau manifolds as an exactly soluble superconformal theory
• Heterotic solitons
• Complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds
• Rolling among Calabi-Yau vacua

Cited by

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• Stationary BPS solutions to dilaton-axion gravity
• Spontaneous breaking of N = 2 global supersymmetry
• Enhanced gauge symmetry in type II and F-theory compactifications: Dynkin diagrams from polyhedra
• Type IIB E4H4−4 conjectures
• The unwarped, resolved, deformed conifold: fivebranes and the baryonic branch of the Klebanov-Strassler theory
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• Instantons and infinite distances
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• Physics of F-theory compactifications without section
• A new method for finding vacua in string phenomenology
• Deconstructing the D0-D6 system
• Strings on Calabi—Yau spaces and toric geometry
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• Baryons and domain walls in an N=1 superconformal gauge theory
• Minimal Higgs branch for the breaking of half of the supersymmetries in N = 2 supergravity
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• Brane constructions, conifolds and M-theory
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• Conifold [wikipedia]
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