Extremal Black Hole Entropy from Horizon Conformal Field Theories

Abstract

We show that the entropy of extremal $D=4$ Reissner--Nordstrom black holes can be computed from horizon CFTs with central charges and conformal weights fixed by the dimensionless Rindler energy. This is possible in the simultaneous extremal and near horizon limit of the black hole which takes the geometry to an $AdS_2$ Rindler space with finite temperature. The CFT description of dilatonic $AdS_2$ black holes, obtained from extremal ones by dimensional reduction, lead to exactly the same CFT states.