Quantum Gravity is Renormalizable near Two Dimensions

Abstract

We prove the renormalizability of quantum gravity near two dimensions. The successful strategy is to keep the volume preserving diffeomorphism as the manifest symmetry of the theory. The general covariance is recovered by further imposing the conformal invariance. The proof utilizes BRS formalism in parallel with Yang-Mills theory. The crucial ingredient of the proof is the relation between the conformal anomaly and the $\beta$ functions.