Ashoke Sen (ICTS), Why supergravity needs string theory

Tuesday 20 Oct 2026, 11:15 → 12:15 Europe/Stockholm

In the first part of the talk I shall describe how string theory leads us to a consistent quantum theory of gravity. In the second part I shall describe how the presence of string landscape has prevented us from making a definite testable prediction until now, but how the same landscape allows us to address outstanding puzzles involving quantum theory of black holes. In the third part I shall describe how the study of some properties of black holes leads to the conclusion that string theory is not only capable of explaining those properties, but may also be necessary  for explaining those properties.