The Black Hole Interior and a Curious Sum Rule

Abstract

We analyze the Euclidean geometry near non-extremal NS5-branes in string theory, including regions beyond the horizon and beyond the singularity of the black brane. The various regions have an exact description in string theory, in terms of cigar, trumpet and negative level minimal model conformal field theories. We study the worldsheet elliptic genera of these three superconformal theories, and show that their sum vanishes. We speculate on the significance of this curious sum rule for black hole physics.