We show how to model the transition between distinct quantum Hall plateaus in terms of D-branes in string theory. A low energy theory of 2+1 dimensional fermions is obtained by considering the D3-D7 system, and the plateau transition corresponds to m
oving the branes through one another. We study the transition at strong coupling using gauge/gravity duality and the probe approximation. Strong coupling leads to a novel kind of plateau transition: at low temperatures the transition remains discontinuous due to the effects of dynamical symmetry breaking and mass generation, and at high temperatures is only partially smoothed out.
We construct spinning black hole solutions in five dimensions that take into account the mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons term and its supersymmetric completion. The resulting entropy formula is discussed from several points of view. We include
a Taub-NUT base space in order to test recent conjectures relating 5D black holes to 4D black holes and the topological string. Our explicit results show that certain charge shifts have to be taken into account for these relations to hold. We also compute corrections to the entropy of black rings in terms of near horizon data.
We review recent developments in understanding quantum/string corrections to BPS black holes and strings in five-dimensional supergravity. These objects are solutions to the effective action obtained from M-theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefo
ld, including the one-loop corrections determined by anomaly cancellation and supersymmetry. We introduce the off-shell formulation of this theory obtained through the conformal supergravity method and review the methods for investigating supersymmetric solutions. This leads to quantum/string corrected attractor geometries, as well as asymptotically flat black strings and spinning black holes. With these solutions in hand, we compare our results with analogous studies in four-dimensional string-corrected supergravity, emphasizing the distinctions between the four and five dimensional theories.
