Complete semiclassical treatment of the quantum black hole problem

Two types of semiclassical calculations have been used to study quantum effects in black hole backgrounds, the WKB and the mean field approaches. In this work we systematically reconstruct the logical implications of both methods on quantum black hole physics and provide the link between these two approaches. Our conclusions completely support our previous findings based solely on the WKB method: quantum black holes are effectively p-brane excitations and, consequently, no information loss paradox exists in this problem. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.