4D and 2D Evaporating Dilatonic Black Holes

The picture of S-wave scattering from a 4D extremal dilatonic black hole is examined. Classically, a small matter shock wave will form a non-extremal black hole. In the “throat region” the r − t geometry is exactly that of a collapsing 2D black hole. The 4D Hawking radiation (in this classical background) gives the 2D Hawking radiation exactly in the throat region. Inclusion of the back-reaction changes this picture: the 4D solution can then be matched to the 2D one only if the Hawking radiation is very small and only at the beginning of the radiation. We give (explicitly) that 4D solution. When the total radiating energy approaches the energy carried by the shock wave, the 4D picture breaks down. This happens even before an apparent horizon is formed, which suggests that the 4D semi-classical solution is quite different from the 2D one. This work is supported by a Fishbach Fellowship and by the NSF grant PHY 88-04561.