DUALITIES, COMPOSITENESS AND SPACE–TIME STRUCTURE OF 4D EXTREME STRINGY BLACK HOLES

Abstract

We study the BPS black hole solutions of the (truncated) action for heterotic string theory compactified on a six-torus. The O (3,Z) duality symmetry of the theory, together with the bound state interpretation of extreme black holes, is used to generate the whole spectrum of the solutions. The corresponding space–time structures, written in terms of the string metric, are analyzed in detail. In particular, we show that only the elementary solutions present naked singularities. The bound states have either null singularities (electric solutions) or are regular (magnetic or dyonic solutions) with near-horizon geometries given by the product of two 2d spaces of constant curvature. The behavior of some of these solutions as supersymmetric attractors is discussed. We also show that our approach is very useful to understand some of the puzzling features of charged black hole solutions in string theory.