Self Gravitating Fundamental Strings

TL;DR

This paper investigates how highly excited strings evolve under increasing coupling, revealing a transition from large string states to black holes, with different behaviors in four and higher dimensions, impacting the string-black hole correspondence.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the transition of self-gravitating strings into black holes across different dimensions, elucidating the dynamics and critical points involved.

Findings

In four dimensions, strings contract into black holes as coupling increases.

In higher dimensions, strings remain large until a critical coupling, then rapidly collapse.

The results inform the string-black hole correspondence principle.

Abstract

We study the configuration of a typical highly excited string as one slowly increases the string coupling. The dominant interactions are the long range dilaton and gravitational attraction. In four spacetime dimensions, the string slowly contracts from its initial (large) size until it approaches the string scale where it forms a black hole. In higher dimensions, the string stays large until the coupling reaches a critical value, and then it rapidly collapses to a black hole. The implications for the recently proposed correspondence principle are discussed.