BLACK HOLE ENTROPY REVEALS A 12th DIMENSION

The Beckenstein-Hawking black hole entropy in string theory and its generalizations, as expressed in terms of charges that correspond to central extensions of the supersymmetry algebra, has more symmetries than U-duality. It is invariant under transformations of the charges, involving a 12th (or 13th) “dimension”. This is an indication that the secret theory behind string theory has a superalgebra involving Lorentz non-scalar extensions (that are not strictly central), as suggested in S-theory, and which could be hidden in Mor Ftheories. It is suggested that the idea of spacetime is broader than usual, and that a larger “spacetime” is partially present in black holes. CERN-TH/96-277 October 1996 1 Research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant number DEFG03-84ER40168 2 On sabbatical leave from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0484, USA.