From the geometry of spacetime to the geometry of numbers

One of the major open challenges in general relativity is the classification of black hole solutions in higher dimensional theories. I will explain a recent result in this direction in the context of Kaluza-Klein spacetimes admitting a sufficient number N of commuting U(1)-symmetries. It turns out that the black holes in such a theory are characterized by the usual asymptotic charges, together with certain combinatorical data and moduli. The combinatorial data characterize the nature of the U(1)^N-action, and its analysis is closely related to properties of integer lattices and questions in the area of geometric number theory. I will also explain recent results on extremal black holes which show that such objects display remarkable ``symmetry enhancement'' properties