Dilaton invading from infinitesimal extra dimension

Abstract

We show that the Wess–Zumino action for the spontaneously broken Weyl (or conformal) symmetry, a.k.a dilaton effective action, in even [Formula: see text] dimensions can be obtained from the Kaluza–Klein dimensional reduction of the Lovelock action in [Formula: see text] dimensions by taking the [Formula: see text] limit, where the dilaton is identified with the metric in the extra dimension. The construction gives an explicit form of the dilaton effective action in any even dimensions.