  Large N gauge theories have so called Gross-Witten phase transitions which
typically can occur in finite volume systems. In this paper we relate these
transitions in supersymmetric gauge theories to transitions that take place
between black hole solutions in general relativity. The correspondence between
gauge theory and gravitation is through matrix theory which represents the
gravitational system in terms of super Yang Mills theories on finite tori. We
also discuss a related transition that was found by Banks, Fischler, Klebanov
and Susskind.
