Entropy and supersymmetry of D-dimensional extremal electric black holes versus string states

Following the work of Sen, we consider the correspondence between extremal black holes and string states in the context of the entropy. We obtain and study properties of electrically charged black hole backgrounds of tree level heterotic string theory compactified on a p-dimensional torus, for D=(10-p)=4, .., 9. We study in particular a one-parameter extremal class of these black holes, the members of which are shown to be supersymmetric. We find that the entropy of such an extremal black hole, when calculated at the stringy stretched horizon, scales in such a way that it can be identified with the entropy of the elementary string state with the corresponding quantum numbers. (orig.)