Two-loop back-reaction in 2D dilaton gravity Original Research Article

We calculate the two-loop quantum corrections, including the back-reaction of the Hawking radiation, to the one-loop effective metric in a unitary gauge quantization of the CGHS model of 2D dilaton gravity. The corresponding evaporating black hole solutions are analyzed, and consistent semi-classical geometries appear in the weak-coupling region of the space-time when the width of the matter pulse is larger then the short-distance cutoff. A consistent semi-classical geometry also appears in the limit of a shock-wave matter. The Hawking radiation flux receives non-thermal corrections such that it vanishes for late times and the total radiated mass is finite. There are no static remnants for matter pulses of finite width, although a BPP type static remnant appears in the shock-wave limit. Semi-classical geometries without curvature singularities can be obtained as well. Our results indicate that higher-order loop corrections can remove the singularities encountered in the one-loop solutions.