Matrix Models and Nonperturbative String Propagation in Two-Dimensional Black Hole Backgrounds

Abstract

We identify a quantity in the $c=1$ matrix model which describes the wavefunction for physical scattering of a tachyon from a black hole of the two dimensional critical string theory. At the semiclassical level this quantity corresponds to the usual picture of a wave coming in from infinity, part of which enters the black hole becoming singular at the singularity, while the rest is scattered back to infinity, with nothing emerging from the whitehole. We find, however, that the exact nonperturbative wavefunction is nonsingular at the singularity and appears to end up in the asymptotic region ``behind'' the singularity.