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We discuss in detail the semiclassical approximation for the CGHS model of two-dimensional dilatonic black holes. This is achieved by a formal expansion of the full Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the momentum constraint in powers of the gravitational constant. In highest order, the classical CGHS solution is recovered. The next order yields a functional Schr\"odinger equation for quantum fields propagating on this background. We show explicitly how the Hawking radiation is recovered from this equation. Although described by a pure quantum state, the expectation value of the number operator exhibits a Planckian distribution with respect to the Hawking temperature. We then show how this Hawking radiation can lead to the decoherence of black hole superpositions. The cases of a superposition of a black hole with a white hole, as well as of a black hole with no hole, are treated explicitly., Comment: 29 pages of LATEX, with 2 (included) figures

As it is well known, the Minkowski vacuum appears thermally populated to a quantum mechanical detector on a uniformly accelerating course. We investigate how this thermal radiation may contribute to the classical nature of the detector's trajectory through the criteria of decoherence. An uncertainty-type relation is obtained for the detector involving the fluctuation in temperature, the time of flight and the coupling to the bath., Comment: Latex2e, 5 pages, includes one figure. To appear in the proceedings of the sixth Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics, May 1995

We present evidence which confirms a suggestion by Susskind and Uglum regarding black hole entropy. Using a Pauli-Villars regulator, we find that 't Hooft's approach to evaluating black hole entropy through a statistical-mechanical counting of states for a scalar field propagating outside the event horizon yields precisely the one-loop renormalization of the standard Bekenstein-Hawking formula, $S=\A/(4G)$. Our calculation also yields a constant contribution to the black hole entropy, a contribution associated with the one-loop renormalization of higher curvature terms in the gravitational action., Comment: 15 pages, plain LaTex minor additions including some references; version accepted for publication

Using the influence functional formalism, the problem of an accelerating detector in the presence of a scalar field in its ground state is considered in Minkowski space. As is known since the work of Unruh, to a quantum mechanical detector following a definite, classical acceleration, the field appears to be thermally excited. We relax the requirement of perfect classicality for the trajectory and substitute it with one of {\it derived} classicality through the criteria of decoherence. The ensuing fluctuations in temperature are then related with the time and the amplitude of excitation in the detector's internal degree of freedom., Comment: LATEX, 12 pages + 2 figures (available upon request) MIT-CTP 2342

The symmetries of the topological Yang-Mills theory are studied in the Hamiltonian formalism and the generators of the twisted N=2 superPoincar\'e algebra are explicitly constructed. Noting that the twisted Lorentz generators do not generate the Lorentz symmetry of the theory, we relate the two by extracting from the latter the twisted version of the internal SU(2) generator. The hermiticity properties of the various generators are also considered throughout, and the boost generators are found to be non-hermitian. We then recover the BRST cohomology condition on physical states from representation theory arguments., Comment: 19 pages, MIT-CTP 2233

Starting from a $D=3$, $N=4$ supersymmetric theory for matter fields, a twist with a Grassmann parity change is defined which maps the theory into a gauge fixed, abelian $BF$ theory on curved 3-manifolds. After adding surface terms to this theory, the twist is seen to map the resulting supersymmetric action to two uncoupled copies of the gauge fixed Chern-Simons action. In addition, we give a map which takes the $BF$ and Chern-Simons theories into Donaldson-Witten TQFT's. A similar construction, but with $N=2$ supersymmetry, is given in two dimensions., Comment: 19 pages, CTP #2237, LaTeX