Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Generation and Coherent Control of Pulsed Quantum Frequency Combs
Published on: June 8, 2018
Worldsheet Correlators in Black Hole Microstates
Davide Bufalini1, Sergio Iguri2,3, Nicolas Kovensky4
1Mathematical Sciences and STAG Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
Researchers matched string worldsheet calculations with holographic duals for black hole microstates. This breakthrough provides new insights into black hole dynamics and Hawking radiation analogues.
Area of Science:
- Theoretical physics
- String theory
- Black hole physics
Background:
- Black hole microstates offer insights into quantum gravity.
- An exact string worldsheet description for certain microstates was recently discovered.
Purpose of the Study:
- To construct physical vertex operators for black hole microstates.
- To compute heavy-light correlators and match them with holographic duals.
- To develop a formula for correlators with multiple light insertions.
Main Methods:
- Construction of physical vertex operators.
- Computation of heavy-light correlators.
- Comparison with holographically dual conformal field theory.
Main Results:
- The first match between worldsheet correlators and holographic duals was achieved.
- A closed formula for correlators with arbitrary light insertions was conjectured.
- The analogue of the Hawking radiation rate for these microstates was computed.
Conclusions:
- The study establishes a concrete link between string theory and quantum field theory descriptions of black hole microstates.
- The findings pave the way for deeper investigations into black hole thermodynamics and quantum information.
- This work provides a new tool for studying black hole dynamics and Hawking radiation.
Related Concept Videos
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape...
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
Singularity Functions for Shear
Equilibrium Conditions for a Particle
To understand the concept of equilibrium, let us first consider the forces acting on an object. When different forces act on an object, they can...
Woodward–Hoffmann Selection Rules and Microscopic Reversibility

