The Charge of Electron, Weak Gravity Conjecture and Black Hole Evolution

Understand

The charge of an electron is vastly larger than its mass.

• We found that black hole evolution under Hawking evaporation is very sensitive to the value of electron charge.
• If the electron charge is weakened by a mere one order of magnitude, then the evolutionary paths of Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes under Hawking evaporation change substantially.
• In particular, weakening the electron charge causes some black holes that would otherwise immediately discharge towards Schwarzschild limit to first evolve towards extremality before turning around.