Quantum corrections to the BTZ black hole extremality bound from the conformal bootstrap

Abstract

Any unitary compact two-dimensional CFT with $c>1$ and no symmetries beyond Virasoro has a parametrically large density of primary states at large spin for $\bar{h}>\bar{h}_\text{extr}\sim \frac{c-1}{24}$, of a universal form determined by modular invariance. By including the contribution of light primary operators and multi-twist composites constructed from them in the modular bootstrap, we find that $\bar{h}_\text{extr}$ receives corrections in a large spin expansion, which we compute at finite $c$. The analysis uses a formulation of the modular S-transform as a Fourier transform acting on the density of primary states. For theories with gravitational duals, $\bar{h}_\text{extr}$ is interpreted as the extremality bound of rotating BTZ black holes, receiving quantum corrections which we compute at one loop by prohibiting naked singularities in the quantum-corrected geometry. This gravity result is reproduced by modular bootstrap in a semiclassical $c\to\infty$ limit.