Black holes and class groups (Q2319813)

In this paper, the authors highlight an intriguing and somewhat mysterious connection between a topic in theoretical physics and a subject in number theory that has been extensively studied for centuries. The focus of the paper is a correspondence, first pointed out by \textit{G. W. Moore} [in: Frontiers in number theory, physics, and geometry II. On conformal field theories, discrete groups and renormalization. Papers from the meeting, Les Houches, France, March 9--21, 2003. Berlin: Springer. 303--359 (2007; Zbl 1193.81085)], between certain classes of black holes and equivalence classes of binary quadratic forms. The particular objects from theoretical physics that Moore studied are the so-called supersymmetric attractor black holes of type IIB string theory compactified on \(K3\times T^2\). He classified these objects up to the duality symmetries of string theory, which provide non-perturbative equivalences between naively distinct solutions, and are called \(U\)-dualities. For a fundamental discriminant \(D<0\), Moore found that the set of \(U\)-duality equivalence classes of attractor black holes with entropy \(\pi\sqrt{-D}\) are in one-to-one correspondence with equivalence classes of primitive positive definite integral binary quadratic forms of discriminant \(D\). It is well known to number theorists that the set of equivalence classes of primitive integral binary quadratic forms of a fixed discriminant \(D<0\) is endowed with the structure of a finite abelian group through the operation induced by Gaussian composition. In turn, this group is known to be isomorphic to the ideal class group of the imaginary quadratic field \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt{D})\). The authors raise a range of interesting questions exploring whether there are natural physical interpretations in terms of attractor black holes for the group law described via the correspondence with class groups and its consequences. Moreover, class numbers of imaginary quadratic fields (i.e., the orders of the class groups) are known to have deep connections with many other mathematical objects. For example, it is noted here that the Eichler-Selberg trace formula gives an explicit formula for the trace of the \(n\)th Hecke operator acting on the space of weight \(k\) cusp forms on \(SL_ 2 (\mathbb Z)\) in terms of class numbers. The authors describe a number of such relationships, and pose further questions as to whether these relationships might, through the correspondence with attractor black holes, have interpretations that would shed light on physical phenomena, or conversely. In order to make this material more widely accessible to both mathematicians and physicists, the authors include sections giving detailed background first on the underlying physics and the correspondence between black holes and binary quadratic forms, and then of the Gaussian theory of composition and the connection with ideal class groups, before moving on to the exploration of these deeper topics.