RENORMALIZATION-GROUP FLOW OF THE DILATON POTENTIAL

We consider a scalar-metric gauge theory of gravity with an independen t metric, connection, and dilation. The role of the dilaton is to prov ide the scale of all masses, via its vacuum expectation value. In this theory, we study the renormalization-group how of the dilaton potenti al, taking into account threshold effects at the Planck scale. Because of the running of the VEV of the dilaton all particles that would nai vely seem to have masses larger than Planck's mass may actually not pr opagate. This could solve the problem of unitarity in these theories.