DILATON GRAVITY IN 2+EPSILON DIMENSIONS

The quantum theory of dilaton gravity is studied in 2 + epsilon dimensions. The divergences are computed and renormalized at one-loop order. The mixing between the Liouville field and the dilaton field eliminates the 1/epsilon singularity in the Liouville-dilaton propagator. This smooth behavior of the dilaton gravity theory in the epsilon --> O limit solves the oversubtraction problem which afflicted the higher orders of Einstein gravity in 2 + epsilon dimensions. As a nontrivial fixed point, we find a dilaton gravity action which can be transformed to a CGHS type action.