Dipole moments of black holes and string states Original Research Article

As a further test of the conjectured equivalence of string states and extremal black holes, we compute the dipole moments of black holes with arbitrary spin and superspin in D = 4, N = 4 supergravity coupled to 22 vector multiplets and compare them with the dipole moments of states in the heterotic string on T6 or the Type IIA string on K3 × T2. Starting from a purely bosonic black hole with Kerr angular momentum L, the superpartners are generated by acting with fermion zero-modes, thus filling out the complete supermultiplet. L is then identified with the superspin. On the heterotic side, elementary states belong only to short or long multiplets, but Type IIA elementary states can belong to intermediate multiplets as well. We find that the black hole gyromagnetic ratios are in perfect agreement with the string states not only for the BPS states belonging to short multiplets but also for those belonging to intermediate multiplets. In fact, these intermediate multiplets provide a stronger test of the black-hole/string-state equivalence because the gyromagnetic ratios are not determined by supersymmetry alone, in contrast to those of the short multiplets. We even find agreement between the non-supersymmetric (but still extremal) black holes and non-BPS string states belonging to long supermultiplets. In addition to magnetic dipole moments we also find electric dipole moments even for purely electrically charged black holes. The electric dipole moments of the corresponding string states have not yet been calculated directly but are consistent with heterotic/Type IIA duality.