Thermodynamics is a science concerning the state of a system, whether it is stable,
metastable, or unstable, when interacting with its surroundings. The combined law of …

If one assumes the validity of conventional quantum field theory in the vicinity of the horizon
of a black hole, one does not find a quantum-mechanical description of the entire black hole …

" Wald's book is clearly the first textbook on general relativity with a totally modern point of
view; and it succeeds very well where others are only partially successful. The book includes …

There are fundamental relations between three vast areas of physics: particle physics,
cosmology and condensed matter physics. The fundamental links between the first two …

Due to the failure of thermodynamics for low temperature near-extremal black holes, it has
long been conjectured that a'thermodynamic mass gap'exists between an extremal black …

These notes are loosely based on lectures given at the CERN Winter School on
Supergravity, Strings and Gauge theories, February 2009, and at the IPM String School in …

We compute the properties of a class of charged black holes in anti–de Sitter space-time, in
diverse dimensions. These black holes are solutions of consistent Einstein-Maxwell …

We examine the recently proposed technique of adding boundary counterterms to the
gravitational action for spacetimes which are locally asymptotic to anti–de Sitter spacetimes …

There exists a widely held notion that gravitational effects can strongly violate global
symmetries. If this is correct, it may lead to many important consequences. We argue, in …

A bstract An important open question in black hole thermodynamics is about the existence of
a “mass gap” between an extremal black hole and the lightest near-extremal state within a …