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We propose a simple algorithm to compute the generalized Komar charge of any exactly gauge- and diffeomorphism-invariant theory., Comment: 6 pages

The Cano-Ruip\'erez 4-dimensional string effective action is the simplest consistent truncation of the first-order in $\alpha'$ heterotic string effective action compactified on T$^{6}$. This theory contains, on top of the metric, a dilaton and an axion that couple to the Gauss-Bonnet term and to the Pontrjagin density which suggests a very strong relation between the physical and geometrical properties of its solutions. In this paper we study the thermodynamics of the string black-hole solutions of this theory using Wald's formalism. We construct the on-shell closed generalized Komar, dilaton and axion 2-form charges, and we used them to find the Smarr formula (that we test on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions) and to prove no-(primary)-hair theorems for the scalar. We find that $\alpha'$ plays the role of a thermodynamical variable with an associated chemical potential. We also notice the occurrence of non-standard gravitational charges in the Wald entropy and scalar charges., Comment: 23 pages + appendices

The supersymmetry properties of Killing vectors and spinors in supergravity theory can be clarified by relating them to Killing supervectors in the supergravity superspace. In the superspace approach it is manifest that supersymmetry 'mixes' a Killing vector with its fermionic spinor 'superpartner' and the Killing equations with the generalization of the Killing spinor equations. The latter reduces to the standard Killing spinor equation, albeit with a fermionic spinor, when the fermionic fields are set to zero. Using these supersymmetry transformations in the spacetime component approach, we construct a Noether-Wald charge of ${\cal N}=1$, $D=4$ supergravity with fermionic contributions which is diff-, Lorentz- and supersymmetry-invariant (up to a total derivative). The Killing supervector formalism for the maximal $D=11$ supergravity and some related issues are also discussed., Comment: 12+ pages. IOP conference style. To appear at IOP Conference Proceedings (ISQS28, Prague, Czech Republic)

The standard Komar charge is a $(d-2)$-form that can be defined in spacetimes admitting a Killing vector and which is closed when the vacuum Einstein equations are satisfied. Its integral at spatial infinity (the Komar integral) gives the conserved charge associated to the Killing vector, and, due to its on-shell closedness, the same value (expressed in terms of other physical variables) is obtained integrating over the event horizon (if any). This equality is the basis of the Smarr formula. This charge can be generalized so that it still is closed on-shell in presence of matter and its integrals give generalizations of the Smarr formula. We show how the Komar charge and other closed $(d-2)$-form charges can be used to prove non-existence theorems for gravitational solitons and boson stars. In particular, we show how one can deal with generalized symmetric fields (invariant under a combination of isometries and other global symmetries) and how the geralized symmetric ansatz permits to evade the non-existence theorems., Comment: References added

We study the interactions and the conditions for the equilibrium of forces between generic non-rotating black holes of the Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton (EMD) theory. We study known (and some new) solutions of the time-symmetric initial-data problem escribing an arbitrary number of those black holes, some of them with primary scalar hair. We show how one can distinguish between initial data corresponding to dynamical situations in which the black holes (one or many) are not in equilibrium and initial data which are just constant-time slices of a static solution of the full equations of motion describing static black holes using (self-)interaction energies. For a single black hole, non-vanishing self-interaction energy is always related to primary scalar hair and to a dynamical black hole. Removing the self-interaction energies in multi-center solutions we get interaction energies related to the attractive and repulsive forces acting on the black holes. As shown by Brill and Lindquist, for widely separated black holes, these take the standard Newtonian and Coulombian forms plus an additional interaction term associated with the scalar charges which is attractive for like charges., Comment: Latex2e file, 38 pages, no figures

We show that, in presence of isometries and non-trivial topology, the Einstein--Hilbert action is invariant under certain transformations of the metric which are not diffeomorphisms. These transformations are similar to the higher-form symmetries of field theories with $p$-form fields. In the context of toroidal Kaluza--Klein compactifications, we show that these symmetries give rise to some of the ``hidden symmetries'' (dualities) of the dimensionally-reduced theories., Comment: LaTeX 2e file, 20 pages, no figures

We consider spacetime metrics with a given (but quite generic) dependence on a dimensionful parameter such that in the 0 and infinity limits of that parameter the metric becomes singular. We study the isometry groups of the original spacetime metrics and of the singular metrics that arise in the limits and the corresponding symmetries of the motion of p-branes evolving in them, showing how the Killing vectors and their Lie algebras can be found in general. We illustrate our general results with several examples which include limits of anti-de Sitter spacetime in which the holographic screen is one of the singular metrics and of pp-waves., Comment: Latex2e paper, 48 pages

We explore the use of the recently defined scalar charge which satisfies a Gauss law in stationary spacetimes, in the context of theories with a scalar potential. We find new conditions that this potential has to satisfy in order to allow for static, asymptotically-flat black-hole solutions with regular horizons and non-trivial scalar field. These conditions are equivalent to some of the known ``no-hair'' theorems (such as Bekenstein's). We study the extended thermodynamics of these systems, deriving a first law and a Smarr formula. As an example, we study the Anabal\'on-Oliva hairy black hole, Comment: author name corrected

Motivated by the current research of generalized symmetries and the construction of conserved charges in pure Einstein gravity linearized over Minkowski spacetime in Cartesian coordinates, we investigate, from a purely classical point of view, the construction of these charges in a coordinate- and frame-independent language in order to generalize them further. We show that all the charges constructed in that context are associated to the conformal Killing-Yano 2-forms of Minkowski spacetime. Furthermore, we prove that those associated to closed conformal Killing-Yano 2-forms are identical to the charges constructed by Kastor and Traschen for their dual Killing-Yano (d-2)-forms. We discuss the number of independent and non-trivial gravitational charges that can be constructed in this way., Comment: References added and some typos corrected. Version to be published in JHEP

We study the invariance of N=1,d=4 supergravity solutions under diffeormophisms and show that, in order to obtain consistent conditions (``Killing equations'') invariant under local supersymmetry transformations, one has to perform supersymmetry transformations generated by the superpartner of the vector that generates standard diffeomorphisms, just as a superspace analysis indicates. Using these transformations, we construct a Noether-Wald charge of N=1,d=4 supergravity with fermionic contributions which is diff- Lorentz- and supersymmetry-invariant (up to a total derivative)., Comment: Title changed to represent betterthe content. References added

We study the thermodynamics of the 4-dimensional electrically charged black-hole solutions of the simplest 5-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory using Wald's formalism. We show how the electric work term present in the 4-dimensional first law of black-hole thermodynamics arises in the purely gravitational 5-dimensional framework. In particular, we find an interesting geometric interpretation of the 4-dimensional electrostatic potential similar to the angular velocity in rotating black holes. Furthermore, we show how the momentum map equation arises from demanding compatibility between the timelike Killing vector of the black-hole solution and the spatial Killing vector of the 5-dimensional background., Comment: LaTeX2e file, 34 pages, no figures

We revisit the first law of black hole thermodynamics in 4-dimensional theories containing scalar and Abelian vector fields coupled to gravity using Wald's formalism and a new definition of scalar charge as an integral over a 2-surface which satisfies a Gauss law in stationary black-hole spacetimes. We focus on ungauged supergravity-inspired theories with symmetric sigma models whose symmetries generate electric-magnetic dualities leaving invariant their equations of motion. Our manifestly duality-invariant form of the first law is compatible with the one obtained by of Gibbons, Kallosh and Kol. We also obtain the general expression for the scalar charges of a stationary black hole in terms of the other physical parameters of the solution and the position of the horizon, generalizing the expression obtained by Pacilio for dilaton black oles., Comment: Misprints corrected and a few comments and references added. Version to be published in JHEP

We compute the first-order $\alpha'$ corrections of the non-extremal Strominger-Vafa black hole and its non-supersymmetric counterparts in the framework of the Bergshoeff-de Roo formulation of the heterotic superstring effective action. The solution passes several tests: its extremal limit is the one found in an earlier publication and the effect of a T duality transformation on it is another solution of the same form with T dual charges. We compute the Hawking temperature and Wald entropy showing that they are related by the first law and Smarr formula. On the other hand, these two contain additional terms in which the dimensionful parameter $\alpha'$ plays the role of thermodynamical variable., Comment: Latex2e file, 53 pages, 7 figures; v2: references added

Using Wald's formalism, we study the thermodynamics (first laws and Smarr formulae) of asymptotically-flat black holes, rings etc. in a higher-dimensional higher-rank generalization of the Einstein-Maxwell theory. We show how to deal with the electric and magnetic charges of the objects and how the electric-magnetic duality properties of the theory are realized in the first laws and Smarr formulae., Comment: Latex 2e file, 24 pages, no figures Some references added and some typos corrected. Version to be published in JHEP

We study black-hole thermodynamics in theories that contain dimensionful constants such as the cosmological constant or coupling constants in Wald's formalism. The most natural way to deal with these constants is to promote them to scalar fields introducing a (d-1)-form Lagrange multiplier that forces them to be constant on-shell. These (d-1)-form potentials provide a dual description of them and, in the context of superstring/supergravity theories, a higher-dimensional origin/explanation. In the context of gauged supergravity theories, all these constants can be collected in the embedding tensor. We show in an explicit 4-dimensional example that the embedding tensor can also be understood as a thermodynamical variable that occurs in the Smarr formula in a duality-invariant fashion. This establishes an interesting link between black-hole thermodynamics, gaugings and compactifications in the context of superstring/supergravity theories., Comment: References added, 43 pages, no figures

We compute the first-order $\alpha'$ corrections to well-known families of heterotic multi-center black-hole solutions in five and four dimensions. The solutions can be either supersymmetric or non-supersymmetric, depending on the relative sign between two of the black-hole charges. For both cases, we find that the equilibrium of forces persists after including the $\alpha'$ corrections, as the existence of multi-center solutions free of unphysical singularities shows. We analyze the possibility of black-hole fragmentation., Comment: Abstract, introduction and conclusions rewritten with a different point of view. The multi-center black-hole solutions found and the main results remain unchanged. 42 pages, 7 figures

We construct the Komar integral for axion-dilaton gravity using Wald's formalism and momentum maps and we use it to derive a Smarr relation for stationary axion-dilaton black holes. While the Wald-Noether 2-form charge is not invariant under SL(2,R) electric-magnetic duality transformations because Wald's formalism does not account for magnetic charges and potentials, the Komar integral constructed with it turns out to be invariant and, in more general theories, it will be fully symplectic invariant. We check the Smarr formula obtained with the most general family of static axion-dilaton black holes., Comment: LaTeX file, 19 pages, no figures

We derive the first law of black hole mechanics in the context of the Heterotic Superstring effective action to first order in alpha prime using Wald's formalism. We carefully take into account all the symmetries of the theory and, as a result, we obtain a manifestly gauge- and Lorentz-invariant entropy formula in which all the terms can be computed explicitly. An entropy formula with these properties allows unambiguous calculations of macroscopic black-hole entropies to first order in alpha prime that can be reliably used in a comparison with the microscopic ones. Such a formula was still lacking in the literature. In the proof we use momentum maps to define covariant variations and Lie derivatives and \textit{restricted generalized zeroth laws} which state the closedness of certain differential forms on the bifurcation sphere and imply the constancy of the associated potentials on it. We study the relation between our entropy formula and other formulae that have been used in the literature., Comment: 35 pages, no figures

We re-derive the first law of black hole mechanics in the context of the Heterotic Superstring effective action compactified on a torus to leading order in alpha prime, using Wald's formalism, covariant Lie derivatives and momentum maps. The Kalb-Ramond field strength of this theory has Abelian Chern-Simons terms which induce Nicolai-Townsend transformations of the Kalb-Ramond field. We show how to deal with all these gauge symmetries deriving the first law in terms of manifestly gauge-invariant quantities. In presence of Chern-Simons terms, several definitions of the conserved charges exist, but the formalism picks up only one of them to play a role in the first law. This work is a first step towards the derivation of the first law at first order in alpha prime where, more complicated, non-Abelian, Lorentz ("gravitational") and Yang-Mills Chern-Simons terms are included in the Kalb-Ramond field strength. The derivation of a first law is a necessary step towards the derivation of a manifestly gauge-invariant entropy formula which is still lacking in the literature. In its turn, this entropy formula is needed to compare unambiguously macroscopic and microscopic black hole entropies., Comment: A complete example in which the momentum maps of a non-extremal, charged, black ring are computed, has been added to the paper. 45 pages

We re-derive the first law of black hole mechanics in the context of the Einstein-Maxwell theory in a gauge-invariant way introducing "momentum maps" associated to field strengths and the vectors that generate their symmetries. These objects play the role of generalized thermodynamical potentials in the first law and satisfy generalized zeroth laws, as first observed in the context of principal gauge bundles by Prabhu, but they can be generalized to more complex situations. We test our ideas on the $d$-dimensional Reissner-Nordstr\"om-Tangherlini black hole., Comment: Some references added

We perform the toroidal compactification of the full Bergshoeff-de Roo version of the Heterotic Superstring effective action to first orderin $\alpha'$. The dimensionally-reduced action is given in a manifestly-O(n,n)-invariant form which we use to derive a manifestly-O(n,n)-invariant Wald entropy formula which we then use to compute the entropy of $\alpha'$-corrected, 4-dimensional, 4-charge, static, extremal, supersymmetric black holes., Comment: References and comments added. Version to be published in Journal of High Energy Physics

We consider the compactification on a circle of the Heterotic Superstring effective action to first order in the Regge slope parameter $\alpha'$ and re-derive the $\alpha'$-corrected Buscher rules first found in arXiv:hep-th/9506156 , proving the T duality invariance of the dimensionally-reduced action to that order in $\alpha'$. We use Iyer and Wald's prescription to derive an entropy formula that can be applied to black-hole solutions which can be obtained by a single non-trivial compactification on a circle and discuss its invariance under the $\alpha'$-corrected T duality transformations. This formula has been successfully applied to $\alpha'$-corrected 4-dimensional non-extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes in arXiv:1910.14324 and we apply it here to a heterotic version of the Strominger-Vafa 5-dimensional extremal black hole., Comment: Misprints in intermediate equations corrected in agreement with the erratum submitted to the journal. Final results not affected

We consider the effective action of the Heterotic Superstring to first order in alpha prime and derive the necessary and sufficient conditions that a field configuration has to satisfy in order to admit at least one Killing spinor using the spinor bilinear method and making minimal coordinate and frame choices. As a previous step in this derivation, we compute the complete spinor bilinear algebra using the Fierz identities, obtaining as a by-product the algebra satisfied by the Spin(7) structure contained in the bilinears in an arbitrary basis. We find the relations existing between the left-hand-sides of the bosonic equations of motion evaluated on supersymmetric field configurations using the Killing Spinor Identities instead of the (far more complicated) integrability conditions of the Killing Spinor Equations as it is common in the literature. We show how to include the Kalb-Ramond's Bianchi identity in the Killing Spinor Identities., Comment: LaTeX2e file, 49 pages, no figures. An error in the derivation of necessary conditions for unbroken supersymmetry and a few typos have been corrected

We study the first-order $\alpha'$ corrections to the singular 4-dimensional massless stringy black holes studied in the nineties in the context of the Heterotic Superstring. We show that the $\alpha'$ corrections not only induce a non-vanishing mass and give rise to an event horizon, but also eliminate the singularity giving rise to a regular spacetime whose global structure includes further asymptotically flat regions in which the spacetime's mass is positive or negative. We study the timelike and null geodesics and their effective potential, showing that the spacetime is geodesically complete. We discuss the validity of this solution, arguing that the very interesting and peculiar properties of the solution are associated to the negative energy contributions coming from the terms quadratic in the curvature. As a matter of fact, the 10-dimensional configuration is singular. We extract some general lessons on attempts to eliminate black-hole singularities by introducing terms of higher order in the curvature., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

We construct a solution of Heterotic supergravity which interpolates between two different AdS$_{3}\times S^{3}\times T^{4}$ geometries corresponding to the near-horizon limits of two 5-dimensional black holes, only one of which has non-Abelian hair. This solution can be used to estimate the amplitude of probability of the non-perturbative decay of the gauge 5-brane responsible for the non-Abelian hair into eight solitonic 5-branes by evaluating its Euclidean action. The Wick rotation of this solution poses several problems which we argue can be overcome by using a non-extremal off-shell (NEOS) deformation of the solution. This NEOS field configuration can be Wick rotated straight away and its Euclidean action can be computed for any value of the deformation parameter. The Euclidean result can then be anti-Wick-rotated and its extremal limit gives the Euclidean action of the original solution, which turns out to be one half of the difference between the entropies of the 5-dimensional black holes., Comment: Few typos corrected. Two references and a footnote added. Version to be published in JHEP

We consider self-dual Yang-Mills instantons in 4-dimensional Kaehler spaces with one holomorphic isometry and show that they satisfy a generalization of the Bogomol'nyi equation for magnetic monopoles on certain 3-dimensional metrics. We then search for solutions of this equation in 3-dimensional metrics foliated by 2-dimensional spheres, hyperboloids or planes in the case in which the gauge group coincides with the isometry group of the metric (SO(3), SO(1,2) and ISO(2), respectively). Using a generalized hedgehog ansatz the Bogomol'nyi quations reduce to a simple differential equation in the radial variable which admits a universal solution and, in some cases, a particular one, from which one finally recovers instanton solutions in the original Kaehler space. We work out completely a few explicit examples for some Kaehler spaces of interest., Comment: Latex2e file, 16 pages, no figures

We show that, in all metric theories of gravity with a general covariant action, gravity couples to the gravitational energy-momentum tensor in the same way it couples to the matter energy-momentum tensor order by order in the weak field approximation around flat spacetime. We discuss the relation of this property to the Strong Equivalence Principle. We also study the gauge transformation properties of the gravitational energy-momentum tensor., Comment: Additional resulting the gauge transformation of the gravitational energy-momentum tensor and references added. 18 pages, no figures

We present an asymptotically flat, spherically symmetric, static, globally regular and horizonless solution of SU$(2)$-gauged $\mathcal{N}=1,d=5$ supergravity. The SU$(2)$ gauge field is that of the BPST instanton. We argue that this solution, analogous to the global monopoles found in $d=4$ $\mathcal{N}=2$ and $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauged supergravities, describes the field of a single string-theory object which does not contribute to the entropy of black holes when we add it to them and show that it is, indeed, the dimensional reduction on T$^{5}$ of the gauge 5-brane. We investigate how the energy of the solution is concentrated as a function of the instanton's scale showing that it never violates the hoop conjecture although the curvature grows unboundedly in the zero scale limit., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Some misprints corrected

We show how to write any Kaehler metric of complex dimension 2 admitting a holomorphic isometry as a simple 1-real-function deformation of a Gibbons-Hawking metric. Hyper-Kaehler metrics with a tri-holomorphic isometry (Gibbons-Hawking metrics) or with a mono-holomorphic isometry are recovered for particular values of the additional function. The new general metric can be used as an Ansatz in several interesting physical problems., Comment: Two references added. A very important comment concerning the novelty of the results presented has also been added in the front page

We construct a supersymmetric black ring solution of SU(2) N=1, d=5 Super-Einstein-Yang-Mills (SEYM) theory by adding a distorted BPST instanton to an Abelian black ring solution of the same theory. The change cannot be observed from spatial infinity: neither the mass, nor the angular momenta or the values of the scalars at infinity differ from those of the Abelian ring. The entropy is, however, sensitive to the presence of the non-Abelian instanton, and it is smaller than that of the Abelian ring, in analogy to what happens in the supersymmetric coloured black holes recently constructed in the same theory and in N=2, d=4 SEYM. By taking the limit in which the two angular momenta become equal we derive a non-Abelian generalization of the BMPV rotating black-hole solution., Comment: 19 pages, no figures

We prove that for arbitrary black brane solutions of generic Supergravities there is an adapted system of variables in which the equations of motion are exactly invariant under electric-magnetic duality, i.e. the interchange of a given extended object by its electromagnetic dual. We obtain thus a procedure to automatically construct the electromagnetic dual of a given brane without needing to solve any further equation. We apply this procedure to construct the non-extremal (p, q)-string of Type-IIB String Theory (new in the literature), explicitly showing how the dual (p, q)-five-brane automatically arises in this construction. In addition, we prove that the system of variables used is suitable for a generic characterization of every double-extremal Supergravity brane solution, which we perform in full generality., Comment: 6 pages; v2 minor corrections

We construct bona fide one- and two-center supersymmetric solutions to N=2, d=4 supergravity coupled to SU(2) non-Abelian vector multiplets. The solutions describe black holes and global monopoles alone or in equilibrium with each other and exhibit non-Abelian hairs of different kinds., Comment: 46 pages, 1 figure; v2 references added

We apply the H-FGK formalism to the study of some properties of the general class of black holes in N=2 supergravity in four dimensions that correspond to the harmonic and hyperbolic ansatze and obtain explicit extremal and non-extremal solutions for the t^3 model with and without a quantum correction. Not all solutions of the corrected model (quantum black holes), including in particular a solution with a single q_1 charge, have a regular classical limit., Comment: Latex2e file +Bibtex file, 35 pages, no figures

We show that the representation of black-hole solutions in terms of the variables H^M which are harmonic functions in the supersymmetric case is non-unique due to the existence of a local symmetry in the effective action. This symmetry is a continuous (and local) generalization of the discrete Freudenthal transformations initially introduced for the black-hole charges and can be used to rewrite the physical fields of a solution in terms of entirely different-looking functions., Comment: Latex2e file, 15 pages, no figures

In this note we describe several procedures to construct, from known black-hole and black-brane solutions of any ungauged supergravity theory, non-trivial gravitational solutions whose "near-horizon" and "near-singularity" limits are Lifshitz-like spacetimes with dynamical critical exponent z, "hyperscaling violation" exponent \theta and Lifshitz radius \ell that depends on the physical parameters of the original black-hole solution. Since the new Lifshitz-like solutions can be constructed from any black-hole solution of any ungauged supergravity, many of them can be easily embedded in String Theory. Some of the procedures produce supersymmetric Lifshitz-like solutions., Comment: 20 pages

Using the general results on the classification of timelike supersymmetric solutions of all 4-dimensional N >1 supergravity theories, we show how to construct all the supersymmetric (single- and multi-) black-hole solutions of N=8 supergravity., Comment: One reference and one short paragraph added. Latex2e file, 14 pages, no figures

We study, following Bertini et al. \cite{Bertini:2011ga}, the hidden conformal symmetry of the massless Klein-Gordon equation in the background of the general, charged, spherically symmetric, static black-hole solution of a class of d-dimensional Lagrangians which includes the relevant parts of the bosonic Lagrangian of any ungauged supergravity. We find that a hidden SL(2,\mathbb{R}) symmetry appears at the near event and Cauchy-horizon limit., Comment: 9 pages. The 2 sl(2) algebras have been extended to two complete Witt algebras. A discussion has been added

We study general classes and properties of extremal and non-extremal static black-hole solutions of N=2, d=5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets using the recently proposed H-FGK formalism, which we also extend to static black strings. We explain how to determine the integration constants and physical parameters of the black-hole and black-string solutions. We derive some model-independent statements, including the transformation of non-extremal flow equations to the form of those for the extremal flow. We apply our methods to the construction of example solutions (among others a new extremal string solution of heterotic string theory on K_3 \times S^1). In the cases where we have calculated it explicitly, the product of areas of the inner and outer horizon of a non-extremal solution coincides with the square of the moduli-independent area of the horizon of the extremal solution with the same charges., Comment: 33 pages. Revised version: references added. No other changes

We present a generalization to an arbitrary number of spacetime (d) and worldvolume (p+1) dimensions of the formalism proposed by Ferrara, Gibbons and Kallosh to study black holes (p=0) in d=4 dimensions. We include the special cases in which there can be dyonic and self- or anti-self-dual black branes. Most of the results valid for 4-dimensional black holes (relations between temperature, entropy and non-extremality parameter, and between entropy and black-hole potential on the horizon) are straightforwardly generalized. We apply the formalism to the case of black strings in N=2,d=5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets, in which the black-string potential can be expressed in terms of the dual central charge and work out an explicit example with one vector multiplet, determining supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric attractors and constructing the non-extremal black-string solutions that interpolate between them., Comment: 28 pages no figures; v2: some references added

We rewrite the Ferrara-Gibbons-Kallosh (FGK) black-hole effective action of N=2, d=4,5 supergravities coupled to vector multiplets, replacing the metric warp factor and the physical scalars with real variables that transform in the same way as the charges under duality transformations, which simplifies the equations of motion. For a given model, the form of the solution in these variables is the same for all spherically symmetric black holes, regardless of supersymmetry or extremality., Comment: 10 pages; v2: references added, some editing of the text, results unchanged; v3: references added as in the published version

We propose a generic recipe for deforming extremal black holes into non-extremal black holes and we use it to find and study the non-extremal black-hole solutions of several N=2,d=4 supergravity models (SL(2,R)/U(1), CPn and STU with four charges). In all the cases considered, the non-extremal family of solutions smoothly interpolates between all the different extremal limits, supersymmetric and not supersymmetric. This fact can be used to find explicitly extremal non-supersymmetric solutions in the cases in which the attractor mechanism does not completely fix the values of the scalars on the event horizon and they still depend on the boundary conditions at spatial infinity. We compare (supersymmetry) Bogomol'nyi bounds with extremality bounds, we find the first-order flow equations for the non-extremal solutions and the corresponding superpotential, which gives in the different extremal limits different superpotentials for extremal black holes. We also compute the "entropies" (areas) of the inner (Cauchy) and outer (event) horizons, finding in all cases that their product gives the square of the moduli-independent entropy of the extremal solution with the same electric and magnetic charges., Comment: Many small, inessential changes. Some misprints corrected and a few references added

We review some general and recent results on the characterization and construction of timelike supersymmetric solutions of 4-dimensional supergravity theories., Comment: Latex2e, 14 pages. Contribution to the Proceedings of the IV Mexican Meeting in Mathematical and Experimental Physics held at El Colegio Nacional, M\'exico DF. July 19th to 23rd, 2010

We find the general form of all the supersymmetric configurations and solutions of N=2,d=4 Einstein-Yang-Mills theories. In the timelike case, which we study in great detail, giving many examples, the solutions to the full supergravity equations can be constructed from known flat spacetime solutions of the Bogomol'nyi equations. This allows the regular supersymmetric embedding in supergravity of regular monopole solutions ('t Hooft-Poyakov's, Weinberg's, Wilkinson and Bais's) but also embeddings of irregular solutions to the Bogomol'nyi equations which turn out to be regular black holes with different forms of non-Abelian hair once the non-triviality of the spacetime metric is taken into account. The attractor mechanism is realized in a gauge-covariant way. In the null case we determine the general equations that supersymmetric configurations and solutions must satisfy but we do not find relevant new supersymmetric solutions., Comment: latex2e, 53 pages, 2 figures

In the recent times a lot of effort has been devoted to improve our knowledge about the space of string theory vacua (``the landscape'') to find statistical grounds to justify how and why the theory selects its vacuum. Particularly interesting are those vacua that preserve some supersymmetry, which are always supersymmetric solutions of some supergravity theory. After an general introduction to how the pursuit of unification has lead to the vacuum selection problem, we are going to review some recent results on the problem of finding all the supersymmetric solutions of a supergravity theory applied to the N=4,d=4 supergravity case., Comment: Enlarged version of the talks given at the Pomeranian Workshop on Cosmology and Fundamental Physics (Pobierowo, Poland) and the 2005 Spanish Relativity Meeting (in Oviedo, Spain). Latex 2e file, 21 pages, no figures

All the supersymmetric configurations of pure, ungauged, N=4,d=4 supergravity are classified in a formalism that keeps manifest the S and T dualities of the theory. We also find simple equations that need to be satisfied by the configurations to be classical solutions of the theory. While the solutions associated to null Killing vectors were essentially classified by Tod (a classification that we refine), we find new configurations and solutions associated to timelike Killing vectors that do not satisfy Tod's rigidity hypothesis (hence, they have a non-trivial U(1) connection) and whose supersymmetry projector is associated to 1-dimensional objects (strings), although they have a trivial axion field., Comment: Latex file, 47 pages. References added and a few non-essential misprints corrected

We show how the Killing Spinor Identities (KSI) can be used to reduce the number of independent equations of motion that need to be checked explicitly to make sure that a supersymmetric configuration is a classical supergravity solution. We also show how the KSI can be used to compute BPS relations between masses and charges., Comment: 10 pages, latex2e. Comments and references added. Version to be published in Physics Letters B

We show how any asymptotically flat supersymmetric solution of minimal d=5 supergravity with flat base space can be deformed into another supersymmetric asymptotically-Godel solution and apply this procedure to the recently found supersymmetric black-ring and black-string solutions., Comment: 9 pages, Latex2e. Additional references included

We study the relations between all the vacua of Lorentzian and Euclidean d=4,5,6 SUGRAs with 8 supercharges, finding a new limiting procedure that takes us from the over-rotating near-horizon BMPV black hole to the Godel spacetime. The timelike compactification of the maximally supersymmetric Godel solution of N=1,d=5 SUGRA gives a maximally supersymmetric solution of pure Euclidean N=2,d=4 with flat space but non-trivial anti-selfdual vector field flux (``flacuum'') that, on the one hand, can be interpreted as an U(1) instanton on the 4-torus and that, on the other hand, coincides with the graviphoton background shown by Berkovits and Seiberg to produce the C-deformation introduced recently by Ooguri and Vafa. We construct flacuum solutions in other theories such as Euclidean type IIA supergravity., Comment: Latex file, 33 pages, 2 eps figures. Some misprints corrected and teh KG4 symmetry superalgebra added

We perform the generalised dimensional reduction of D=11 supergravity over three-dimensional group manifolds as classified by Bianchi. Thus, we construct eleven different maximal D=8 gauged supergravities, two of which have an additional parameter. One class of group manifolds (class B) leads to supergravities that are defined by a set of equations of motion that cannot be integrated to an action. All 1/2 BPS domain wall solutions are given. We also find a non-supersymmetric domain wall solution where the single transverse direction is time. This solution describes an expanding universe and upon reduction gives the Einstein-de Sitter universe in D=4. The uplifting of the different solutions to M-theory and the isometries of the corresponding group manifold are discussed., Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure. v2: discussion concerning the isometries clarified, minor changes, references added. v3: references added, published version

We review the definition of (maximally supersymmetric) vacuum in supergravity theories, the currently known vacua in arbitrary dimensions and how the associated supersymmetry algebras can be found. (Invited talk at the Spanish Relativity Meeting (``EREs'') 2002, Mao, Menorca, September 21-23 2002.), Comment: Latex2e, 15 pages