Solutions of arbitrary topology in 1+1 gravity

Abstract

We present a classification of all global solutions for generalized 2D dilaton gravity models (with Lorentzian signature). While for some of the popular choices of potential-like terms in the Lagrangian, describing, e.g., string inspired dilaton gravity or spherically reduced gravity, the possible topologies of the resulting spacetimes are restricted severely, we find that for generic choices of these `potentials' there exist maximally extended solutions to the field equations on all non-compact two-surfaces.