Application of string theory to black hole physics and cosmology

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In the last few years string theory has led to important new insights in the microscopic theory of certain supersymmetric black holes as well as quantum field theory with extended supersymmetry. Furthermore, it has become clear that gravity and quantum field theory are often complementary descriptions of the same dynamics. The purpose of the research project described here is to investigate to what extent these results can be extended to more realistic, non-supersymmetric systems such as non-extremal black holes. On another front we propose to investigate cosmological implications of recently proposed string compactifications with large extra dimensions. In particular, alternative scenarios for inflation within brane-inspired cosmologies will be analysed.