The relationship between N-soliton solutions to the Euclidean sine-Gordon
equation and Lorentzian black holes in Jackiw-Teitelboim dilaton gravity is
investigated, with emphasis on the important role played by the dilaton in
determining the black hole geometry. We show how an N-soliton solution can be
used to construct ``sine-Gordon'' coordinates for a black hole of mass M, and
construct the transformation to more standard ``Schwarzchild-like''
coordinates. For N=1 and 2, we find explicit closed form solutions to the
dilaton equations of motion in soliton coordinates, and find the relationship
between the soliton parameters and the black hole mass. Remarkably, the black
hole mass is non-negative for arbitrary soliton parameters. In the one-soliton
case the coordinates are shown to cover smoothly a region containing the whole
interior of the black hole as well as a finite neighbourhood outside the
horizon. A Hamiltonian analysis is performed for slicings that approach the
soliton coordinates on the interior, and it is shown that there is no boundary
contribution from the interior. Finally we speculate on the sine-Gordon
solitonic origin of black hole statistical mechanics.Comment: Latex, uses epsf, 30 pages, 6 figures include