Making Maps and Keeping Logs : Quantum Gravity from Classical Viewpoints

This thesis explores three different aspects of quantum gravity. First we study D3-brane black holes in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type IIB string theory. Using the OSV conjecture and a relation between topological strings and matrix models we show that some black holes have a matrix model description. This is the case if the attractor mechanism fixes the internal geometry to a conifold at the black hole horizon. We also consider black holes in a flux compactification and compare the effects of the black holes and fluxes on the internal geometry. We find that the fluxes dominate. Second, we study the scalar potential of type IIB flux compactifications. We demonstrate that monodromies of the internal geometry imply as a general feature the existence of long series of continuously connected minima. This allows for the embedding of scenarios such as chain inflation and resonance tunneling into string theory. The concept of monodromies is also extended to include geometric transitions: passing to a different Calabi-Yau topology, performing its monodromies and then returning to the original space allows for novel transformations. All constructions are performed explicitly, using both analytical and numerical techniques, in the mirror quintic Calabi-Yau. Third, we study cosmological topologically massive gravity at the chiral point, a prime candidate for quantization of gravity in three dimensions. The prospects of this scenario depend crucially of the stability of the theory. We demonstrate the presence of a negative energy bulk mode that grows logarithmically toward the AdS boundary. The AdS isometry generators have non-unitary matrix representations like in logarithmic CFT, and we propose that the CFT dual for this theory is logarithmic. In a complementing canonical analysis we also demonstrate the existence of this bulk degree of freedom, and we present consistent boundary conditions encompassing the new mode