One-loop effective action for a generic 2d dilaton gravity theory Original Research Article

We study the one-loop effective action for a generic two-dimensional dilaton gravity theory conformally coupled to N matter fields. We obtain an explicit expression for the effective action in the weak-coupling limit under a suitable restriction of the dilaton potential asymptotics. Our result applies to the CGHS model as well as to spherically symmetric general relativity. The effective action is obtained by using the background-field method, and we take into account the loop contributions from all the fields in the classical action and from the ghosts. In the large-N limit, and after an appropriate field redefinition, the one-loop correction takes the form of the Polyakov-Liouville action.