Screening Stringy Horizons

Abstract: It has been argued recently that string theory effects qualitatively modify the effective black hole geometry experienced by modes with radial momentum of order $1/\sqrt{\alpha'}$. At tree level, these $\alpha'$-effects can be explicitly worked out in two-dimensional string theory, and have a natural explanation in the T-dual description as coming from the integration of the zero-mode of the linear dilaton, what yields a contribution that affects the scattering phase-shift in a peculiar manner. It has also been argued that the phase-shift modification has its origin in a region of the moduli space that does not belong to the exterior black hole geometry, leading to the conclusion that at high energy the physics of the problem is better described by the dual model. Here, we elaborate on this argument. We consider the contribution of worldsheet instantons in the 2D Euclidean black hole sigma-model and study its influence on the phase-shift at high energy.