Conformal and Nonconformal Symmetries in 2d Dilaton gravity

TL;DR

This paper identifies specific exponential potential models in 2D dilaton gravity that admit extra conformal symmetries, enabling exact solutions including semiclassical back-reaction, and introduces new classes of symmetry transformations.

Contribution

It characterizes models with exponential potentials as uniquely admitting conformal symmetries and extends the BPP semiclassical model to more general 2D dilaton gravities.

Findings

Exponential potential models admit extra conformal symmetry.

The models allow for exact semiclassical solutions with back-reaction.

New non-conformal symmetries can be transformed into conformal ones via field redefinitions.

Abstract

We study finite-dimensional extra symmetries of generic 2D dilaton gravity models. Using a non-linear sigma model formulation we show that the unique theories admitting an extra (conformal) symmetry are the models with an exponential potential $V \propto e^{\beta\phi}$ ($ S ={1\over2\pi} \int d^2 x \sqrt{-g} [ R \phi + 4 \lambda^2 e^{\beta\phi} ]$), which include the CGHS model as a particular though limiting ($\beta=0$) case. These models give rise to black hole solutions with a mass-dependent temperature. The underlying extra symmetry can be maintained in a natural way in the one-loop effective action, thus implying the exact solubility of the semiclassical theory including back-reaction. Moreover, we also introduce three different classes of (non-conformal) transformations which are extra symmetries for generic 2D dilaton gravity models. Special linear combinations of these transformations turn out to be the (conformal) symmetries of the CGHS and $V \propto e^{\beta\phi}$ models. We show that one of the non-conformal extra symmetries can be converted into a conformal one by means of adequate field redefinitions involving the metric and the derivatives of the dilaton. Finally, by expressing the Polyakov-Liouville effective action in terms of an invariant metric, we are able to provide semiclassical models which are also invariant. This generalizes the solvable semiclassical model of Bose, Parker and Peleg (BPP) for a generic 2D dilaton gravity model.