Effective action for scalar fields in two-dimensional gravity (Q1597384)

A wide class of two-dimensional gravity models with torsion and equivalent generalized dilation models are considered. It is admitted that nonminimal coupling is sufficiently general to include spherically reduced gravity. The Hamiltonian formulation of the model is given. A general solution of the equations of motion in the matterless case and the equivalence with the dilaton model are briefly reviewed. The geometric part of the equations of motion with respect to the zweibein and Lorentz connection assuming the scalar field to be arbitrary is solved. The solution is substituted into the equations of motion for a scalar field. In this way the effective equations of motion are obtained only for a scalar field and its conjugate momentum. It is shown that the effective action yielding these equations arises as a boundary term. The effective equations of motion are written in a Minkowskian space-time and provide a general solution to the effective equations of motion. For spherically reduced gravity a more general effective action depending on some arbitrary function of time to be fixed by boundary conditions on the metric is given.