Thermal divergences on the event horizons of two-dimensional black holes

The expectation value of the stress-energy tensor 〈${\mathit{T}}_{\mathrm{\mu }\nu }$〉 of a free conformally invariant scalar field is computed in a general static two-dimensional black hole spacetime when the field is in either a zero temperature vacuum state or a thermal state at a nonzero temperature. It is found that for every static two-dimensional black hole the stress-energy diverges strongly on the event horizon unless the field is in a state at the natural black hole temperature which is defined by the surface gravity of the event horizon. This implies that both extreme and nonextreme two-dimensional black holes can only be in equilibrium with radiation at the natural black hole temperature.