Black hole microstates and chronology protection in string theory

The proposed project addresses two fundamental questions in quantum gravity, namely the nature of black hole microstates and the chronology protection conjecture stating that closed timelike curves are unphysical. These questions will be studied using tools from string theory and from the AdS/CFT correspondence. Black hole microstates will be studied within the black hole deconstruction proposal of Denef et. al.. The aim is to construct and study the supergravity solutions which, according to the proposal, correspond to individual microstates of the black hole. The chronology protection conjecture will be studied using the AdS/CFT correspondence, with the aim of demonstrating that closed timelike curves require a violation of quantum mechanical unitarity. The project also aims to explore a recently discovered link between these two topics.