Massless Black Holes as Black Diholes and Quadruholes

Massless black holes can be understood as bound states of a (positive mass) extreme $a=\sqrt{3}$ black hole and a singular object with opposite ({\it i.e.}~negative) mass with vanishing ADM (total) mass but non-vanishing gravitational field. Supersymmetric balance of forces is crucial for the existence of this kind of bound states and explains why the system does not move at the speed of light in spite of being massless. We also explain how supersymmetry allows for negative mass as long as it is never isolated but in bound states of total non-negative mass. The known massless black-hole solutions should then be considered particular cases of ``gravitational dipoles''. We also present ``gravitational quadrupoles'' and comment on the possible role of all these objects in string phase transitions.