Attractors and the Holomorphic Anomaly

Abstract

Motivated by the recently proposed connection between N=2 BPS black holes and topological strings, I study the attractor equations and their interplay with the holomorphic anomaly equation. The topological string partition function is interpreted as a wave-function obtained by quantizing the real cohomology of the Calabi-Yau. In this interpretation the apparent background dependence due to the holomorphic anomaly is caused by the choice of complex polarization. The black hole attractor equations express the moduli in terms of the electric and magnetic charges, and lead to a real polarization in which the background dependence disappears. Our analysis results in a generalized formula for the relation between the microscopic density of black hole states and topological strings valid for all backgrounds.