Brane-antibrane democracy

We suggest a duality-invariant formula for the entropy and temperature of nonextreme black holes in supersymmetric string theory. The entropy is given in terms of the duality-invariant parameter of the deviation from extremality and 56 SU(8) covariant central charges. It interpolates between the entropies of Schwarzs-child solution and extremal solutions with various amount of unbroken supersymmetries, and therefore, serves for classification of black holes in supersymmetric string theories. We introduce the second auxiliary 56 via an E(7) symmetric constraint. The symmetric and antisymmetric combinations of these two multiplets are related via moduli to the corresponding two fundamental representations of E(7): brane and antibrane "numbers." Using the $\mathrm{CPT}$ as well as $C$ symmetry of the entropy formula and duality one can explain the mysterious simplicity of the nonextreme black hole area formula in terms of branes and antibranes.