Cosmology of the Jackiw--Teitelboim model (Q1863121)

chis paper investigates cosmological solutions to the `Jackiw-Teitelboim model', see the articles by \textit{R. Jackiw} and \textit{C. Teitelboim} in [Quantum theory of gravity, S. M. Christensen (ed.), Adam Hilger, Bristol, 403-420, 327-344 (1984)]. This model is defined in two spacetime dimensions and consists of a gravitational part (containing the metric plus a scalar field -- the dilaton) and a matter part. The difference to other models of `dilaton-gravity' is that here the dilaton does not possess a kinetic term. The present paper addresses two different types of matter coupling: minimal coupling and conformal coupling. For both cases the Einstein equations are solved for a homogeneous and isotropic metric, containing the scale factor \(R(t)\) as the only dynamical variable. The cases of vanishing, positive, and negative cosmological constant are discussed separately. It is found that all solutions exhibit initial singularities, either in the dilaton or in the metric. In the case of a dilaton singularity, the universe can start its expansion with a finite size.