Microscopic derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula for non-extremal black holes

We derive the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula for four- and five-dimensional non-supersymmetric black holes (which include the Schwarzschild ones) by counting microscopic states. This is achieved by first showing that these black holes are U-dual to the three-dimensional black hole of Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli and then counting microscopic states of the latter following Carlip's approach. Black holes higher than five dimensional are also considered. We discuss the connection of our approach to the D-brane picture. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.