EXTREMAL BLACK HOLES AND ELEMENTARY STRING STATES

TL;DR

The paper investigates the correspondence between extremal black holes in string theory and elementary string states, showing that stringy effects can reconcile black hole entropy with string state density.

Contribution

It demonstrates how stringy corrections to black hole entropy align it with the density of elementary string states, supporting a link between black holes and string excitations.

Findings

Stringy effects correct the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula.

Black hole entropy matches the logarithm of string state density.

Entropy depends correctly on mass, charge, and coupling constant.

Abstract

Some of the extremal black hole solutions in string theory have the same quantum numbers as the Bogomol'nyi saturated elementary string states. We explore the possibility that these black holes can be identified to elementary string excitations. It is shown that stringy effects could correct the Bekenstein-Hawking formula for the black hole entropy in such a way that it correctly reproduces the logarithm of the density of elementary string states. In particular, this entropy has the correct dependence on three independent parameters, the mass and the left-handed charge of the black hole, and the string coupling constant.