Conceptual Analysis of Black Hole Entropy in String Theory

Understand

The microscopic state counting of the extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole performed by Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa in 1996 has proven to be a central result in string theory.

• Here, with a philosophical readership in mind, the argument is presented in its contemporary context and its rather complex conceptual structure is analysed.
• In particular, we will identify the various inter-theoretic relations, such as duality and linkage relations, on which it depends.
• We further aim to make clear why the argument was immediately recognised as a successful accounting for the entropy of this black hole and how it engendered subsequent work that intended to strengthen the string theoretic analysis of black holes.