On Quantum Black Holes

Abstract

A pedagogical discussion is given of some aspects of \lq\lq quantum black holes", primarily using recently developed two-dimensional models. After a short preliminary concerning classical black holes, we give several motivations for studying such models, especially the so called dilaton gravity models in $1+1$ dimensions. Particularly attractive is the one proposed by Callan,Giddings, Harvey and Strominger (CGHS), which is classically solvable and contains black hole solutions. Its semi-classical as well as classical properties will be reviewed, including how a flux of matter fields produces a black hole with a subsequent emission of Hawking radiation. Breakdown of such an approximation near the horizon, however, calls for exactly solvable variants of this model and some attempts in this direction will then be described. A focus will be placed on a model with 24 matter fields, for which exact quantization can be performed and physical states constructed. A method will then be proposed to extract space-time geometry described by these states in the sense of quantum average and examples containing a black hole will be presented. Finally we give a (partial) list of future problems and discuss the nature of difficulties in resolving them.