The dualities of 3D dilaton gravity

Abstract

We investigate Brans-Dicke dilaton gravity theories in 2+1 dimensions. We show that the reduced field equations for solutions with diagonal metric and depending only on one spacetime coordinate have a continuous O(2) symmetry. Using this symmetry we derive general static and cosmological solutions of the theory. The action of the discrete group O(2,Z) on the space of the solutions is discussed. Three-dimensional string effective theory and three-dimensional general relativity are discussed in detail. In particular, we find that the previously discovered black string solution is dual to a spacetime with a conical singularity.