Scattering of low lying states in the black hole atmosphere

TL;DR

This paper confirms a duality between different states in string theory near black holes by computing scattering amplitudes, revealing how oscillator and winding states are related and clarifying mechanisms of string winding number violation.

Contribution

It explicitly verifies a duality between oscillator and winding states in black hole backgrounds through tree level scattering amplitude calculations.

Findings

Duality between oscillator and winding states confirmed

Normalization of dual vertex operators determined

Identification of states consistent with spectrum analysis

Abstract

We investigate finite $\alpha '$ effects in string theory on a black hole background. By explicitly computing tree level scattering amplitudes, we confirm a duality between seemingly different states recently conjectured by Giveon, Itzhaki, and Kutasov in [arXiv:1603.05822]. We verify that the relevant 3-point functions factorize in such a way that the duality between oscillator and winding states becomes manifest. This leads to determine the precise normalization of the dual vertex operators, and confirms at the level of the interacting theory the identification of states suggested by the analysis of the spectrum. This result implies a duality between two seemingly distinct mechanisms driving the violation of the string winding number in the black hole atmosphere.