Nonsingular Black Hole Evaporation and ``Stable'' Remnants

TL;DR

This paper studies two-dimensional black hole evaporation, showing it can reach a stable endpoint with implications for information retention, depending on the back-reaction strength.

Contribution

It demonstrates that certain 2D black hole models can evaporate to stable remnants, revealing different regimes based on back-reaction strength.

Findings

Black hole evaporation can end in stable remnants.

Weak back-reaction leads to adiabatic evaporation.

Strong back-reaction results in a surprising decay process.

Abstract

We examine the evaporation of two--dimensional black holes, the classical space--times of which are extended geometries, like for example the two--dimensional section of the extremal Reissner--Nordstrom black hole. We find that the evaporation in two particular models proceeds to a stable end--point. This should represent the generic behavior of a certain class of two--dimensional dilaton--gravity models. There are two distinct regimes depending on whether the back--reaction is weak or strong in a certain sense. When the back--reaction is weak, evaporation proceeds via an adiabatic evolution, whereas for strong back--reaction, the decay proceeds in a somewhat surprising manner. Although information loss is inevitable in these models at the semi--classical level, it is rather benign, in that the information is stored in another asymptotic region.