Geodesics and geodesic deviation in a two-dimensional black hole

We introduce an exactly solvable example of timelike geodesic motion and geodesic deviation in the background geometry of a well-known two-dimensional black hole, spacetime. The effective potential for geodesic motion turns out to be either a harmonic oscillator or an inverted harmonic oscillator or a linear function of the spatial variable corresponding to the three different domains of a constant of the motion. The geodesic deviation equation also is exactly solvable. The corresponding deviation vector is obtained and the nature of the deviation is briefly discussed by highlighting a specific case. (C) 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.