We study exact vacuum solutions to quadratic gravity (QG) of the Weyl types N and III. We show that in an arbitrary dimension all Einstein spacetimes of the Weyl type N with an appropriately chosen effective cosmological constant $Λ$ are exact solutions to QG and we refer to explicitly known metrics within this class.
For type III Einstein spacetimes, an additional constraint follows from the field equations of QG and examples of spacetimes obeying such constraint are given. However, type III pp-waves do not satisfy this constraint and thus do not solve QG.
For type N, we also study a wider class of spacetimes admitting a pure radiation term in the Ricci tensor. In contrast to the Einstein case, the field equations of generic QG determine optical properties of the geometry and restrict such exact solutions to the Kundt class. We provide examples of these metrics.
A 2D symmetric teleparallel gravity model is given by a generic 4-parameter action that is quadratic in the non-metricity tensor. Variational field equations are derived. A class of conformally flat solutions is given. We also discuss static and cosmological solutions.
The Israel equations for thin shells in General Relativity are derived directly from the least action principle. The method is elaborated for obtaining the equations for double layers in quadratic gravity from the least action principle.
We give an exact solution of the quadratic gravity in D dimensions. The solution is a plane fronted wave metric with a cosmological constant. This metric solves not only the full quadratic gravity field equations but also the linearized ones which include the linearized equations of the recently found critical gravity. A subset of the solutions change the asymptotic structure of the anti-de Sitter space due to their logarithmic behavior.
We present a simplified formulation of massive gravity where the Higgs fields have quadratic kinetic term. This new formulation allows us to prove in a very explicit way that all massive gravity theories considered so far inevitably have Boulware-Deser ghost in non-trivial fluctuations of background metric.
Partial results are obtained for Schwarzschild- like solutions in a gravity theory with action density (-g)^(1/2)[Rik^2+bR^2]. A seven parameter family of implicit solutions is found. A number of explicit solutions are also exhibited.
We continue our study of gravity described by the action density (-g)^(1/2)(R_ik^2+bR^2); and look for cosmological solutions of gravity coupled to dust, for the closed isotropic model. There is a solution that at t approaches zero has for the radius, a(t)=t/3^(1/2); in the absence of dust this solution holds for all time.
Perturbative solutions to the fourth-order gravity describing spherically-symmetric, static and electrically charged black hole in an asymptotically de Sitter universe is constructed and discussed. Special emphasis is put on the lukewarm configurations, in which the temperature of the event horizon equals the temperature of the cosmological horizon.
The Hawking radiation of static, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat solutions in quadratic gravity, is here explored. The emitted fermions are governed by the Dirac equation in the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) context, that probes the spacetime (quantum) nature. The Hawking thermal spectrum is scrutinized out of the tunnelling method and the WKB procedure. The Hawking flux is shown to vanish for small black holes, for a precise combination of the GUP parameter and the coupling constants that drive the gravitational interaction in quadratic gravity, yielding absolutely stable…
More than three decades ago quadratic gravity was found to present a perturbative, renormalizable and asymptotically free theory of quantum gravity. Unfortunately the theory appeared to have problems with a spin-2 ghost. In this essay we revisit quadratic gravity in a different light by considering the case that the asymptotically free interaction flows to a strongly interacting regime. This occurs when the coefficient of the Einstein-Hilbert term is smaller than the scale $Λ_{\mathrm{QG}}$ where the quadratic couplings grow strong. Here QCD provides some useful insights. By pushing the analog…
We present a systematic procedure of finding the shock wave equation in anisotropic spacetime of quadratic gravity with Lagrangian ${\cal L}=R+ Λ+αR_{μνσρ}R^{μνσρ}+βR_{μν}R^{μν}+γR^2+{\cal L}_{\rm matter}$. The general formula of the butterfly velocity is derived. We show that the shock wave equation in the planar, spherical or hyperbolic black hole spacetime of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity is the same as that in Einstein gravity if space is isotropic. We consider the modified AdS spacetime deformed by the leading correction of the quadratic curvatures and find that the fourth order derivativ…
We construct new solutions of five-dimensional quadratic gravity as direct products of a constant curvature two-surface with a solution of three-dimensional new massive gravity with constant scalar curvature. These solutions could represent near-horizon limits of five-dimensional asymptotically flat black strings or black rings. A number of these non-asymptotically flat solutions are themselves black strings or rings. A by-product of our analysis is the construction of new solutions of four-dimensional quadratic gravity obtained by toroidal reduction of the five-dimensional solutions with flat…
The quadratic gravity constraints are reformulated in terms of the Newman-Penrose-like quantities. In such a frame language, the field equations represent a linear algebraic system for the Ricci tensor components. In principle, a procedure for the combination of the Ricci components with standard geometric identities can be applied in a similar way as in the case of general relativity. These results could serve in various subsequent analyses and physical interpretations of admitted solutions to quadratic gravity. Here, we demonstrate the utility of such an approach by explicitly proving genera…
Asymptotically Safe theories of gravity have recently received much attention. In this work we discuss a class of inflationary models derived from quantum-gravity modification of quadratic gravity according to the induced scaling around the non-Gaussian fixed point at very high energies. It is argued that the presence of a three dimensional ultraviolet critical surface generates operators of non-integer power of the type $R^{2-θ/2}$ in the effective Lagrangian, where $θ>0$ is a critical exponent. The requirement of a successful inflationary model in agreement with the recent Planck 2015 data p…
We investigate several quantum phenomena related to quadratic gravity after rewriting the general fourth-order action in a more convenient form that is second-order in derivatives and produces only first-class constraints in phase space. We find that a Higgs mechanism may occur in the conformally invariant subset of the general quadratic action if the theory is conformally coupled to a scalar field that acquires a non-zero vacuum expectation value and spontaneously breaks the conformal symmetry. Then, in the broken phase, the originally massless spin-2 ghost may absorb both the scalar and vect…
In this note, we evaluate the Weyl-invariant quadratic curvature tensors for the particular Weyl's gauge field constructed in the $3+1$-dimensional noncompact Weyl-Einstein-Yang-Mills model. We subsequently extend the model to its higher curvature version. Here, we also compute Weyl-invariant extension of topological Gauss-Bonnet term for this specific choice of vector field.
Standard methods for calculating the black hole entropy beyond general relativity are ambiguous when the horizon is non stationary. We fix these ambiguities in all quadratic curvature gravity theories, by demanding that the entropy be increasing at every time, for linear perturbations to a stationary black hole. Our result matches with the entropy formula found previously in holographic entanglement entropy calculations. We explicitly calculate the entropy increase for Vaidya-like solutions in Ricci-tensor gravity to show that (unlike the Wald entropy) the holographic entropy obeys a Second La…
In the present paper we investigate the conservative conditions in Quadratic Gravity. It is shown explicitly that the Bianchi identities lead to the conservative condition of the left-hand-side of the (gravitational) field equation. Therefore, the total energy-momentum tensor is conservative in the bulk (like in General Relativity). However, in Quadratic Gravity it is possible to have singular hupersurfaces separating the bulk regions with different behavior of the matter energy-momentum tensor or different vacua. They require special consideration. We derived the conservative conditions on su…
We provide new formulas for the energy of black hole solutions in the anti-de Sitter (AdS) sector of a generic gravity theory with curvature-squared terms. This is achieved by the addition of counterterms of the extrinsic type (\emph{Kounterterms}) which produces a finite variation of the total action. The procedure is compatible with the boundary conditions in asymptotically AdS spaces within the framework of Quadratic Curvature Gravity (QCG) theory. As a consequence, without resorting to background-substraction, or linearized methods, the conserved charges correctly reproduce the energy of s…
We extend the results of antecedent literature on quadratic Metric-Affine Gravity by studying a new quadratic gravity action in vacuum which, besides the usual (non-Riemannian) Einstein-Hilbert contribution, involves all the parity even quadratic terms in torsion and non-metricity plus a Lagrangian that is quadratic in the field-strengths of the torsion and non-metricity vector traces. The theory result to be equivalent, on-shell, to a Vector-Tensor theory. We also discuss the sub-cases in which the contribution to the Lagrangian quadratic in the field-strengths of the torsion and non-metricit…
In this letter we consider the Einsteinian strengths and dynamical degrees of freedom for quadratic gravity. We show that purely metric quadratic gravity theories are much stronger in Einsteinian sense than the competitive quadratic gravity theories which admit torsion.
Using the invariance of Quadratic Gravity in FLRW metric under the group of diffeomorphisms of the time coordinate, we rewrite the action $A$ of the theory in terms of the invariant dynamical variable $g(τ)\,.$ We propose to consider the path integrals $\int\,F(g)\,\exp\left\{-A \right\}dg$ as the integrals over the functional measure $μ(g)=\exp\left\{-A_{2} \right\}dg\,,\ $ where $A_{2}$ is the part of the action $A$ quadratic in $R\,.$ The rest part of the action stands in the exponent in the integrand as the "interaction" term. We prove the measure $μ(g)$ to be equivalent to the Wiener meas…
We study the cosmology of a quadratic metric-compatible torsionful gravity theory in the presence of a perfect hyperfluid. The gravitational action is an extension of the Einstein-Cartan theory given by the usual Einstein-Hilbert contribution plus all the admitted quadratic parity even torsion scalars and the matter action also exhibits a dependence on the connection. The equations of motion are obtained by regarding the metric and the metric-compatible torsionful connection as independent variables. We then consider a Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker background, analyze the conservation la…
When describing gravity at high energies it is natural to introduce terms quadratic in the curvature as first corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Static, spherically symmetric classical solutions are studied in the case of the quantum-motivated $R+R^2+C^{μνρσ}C_{μνρσ}$ theory. In contrast with the case of General Relativity, where the metric is forced to be the Schwarzschild one, a large spectrum of solutions with different gravitational potentials has been found. It is shown how these solutions populate the parameter space of the theory, and some possible phenomenological implications…
It is a known fact that the Kerr-Schild type solutions in general relativity satisfy both exact and linearized Einstein field equations. We show that this property remains valid also for a special class of the Kerr-Schild metrics in arbitrary dimensions in generic quadratic curvature theory. In addition to the AdS-wave (or Siklos) metric which represents plane waves in an AdS background, we present here a new exact solution, in this class, to the quadratic gravity in D-dimensions which represents a spherical wave in an AdS background. The solution is a special case of the Kundt metrics belongi…
We provide a brief overview of what is known about Quadratic Gravity, which includes terms quadratic in the curvatures in the fundamental action. This is proposed as a renormalizeable UV completion for quantum gravity which continues to use the metric as the fundamental dynamical variable. However, there are unusual field-theoretic consequences because the propagators contain quartic momentum dependence. At the present stage of our understanding, Quadratic Gravity continues to be a viable candidate for a theory of quantum gravity.
Quadratic gravity presents us with a renormalizable, asymptotically free theory of quantum gravity. When its couplings grow strong at some scale, as in QCD, then this strong scale sets the Planck mass. QCD has a gluon that does not appear in the physical spectrum. Quadratic gravity has a spin-2 ghost that we conjecture does not appear in the physical spectrum. We discuss how the QCD analogy leads to this conjecture and to the possible emergence of general relativity. Certain aspects of the QCD path integral and its measure are also similar for quadratic gravity. With the addition of the Einste…
We provide a simple method to compute the energy in higher curvature gravity in asymptotically AdS spacetimes in even dimensions. It follows from the combined use of topological terms added to the gravity action, and the Wald charges derived from the augmented action functional. No additional boundary terms are needed. As a consistency check, we show that the formula for the conserved quantities derived in this way yields the correct result for the mass of asymptotically AdS black holes.
In the context of CA conjecture for holographic complexity, we study the action growth rate at late time approximation for general quadratic curvature theory of gravity. We show how the Lloyd's bound saturates for charged and neutral black hole solutions. We observe that a second singular point may modify the action growth rate to a value other than the Lloyd's bound. Moreover, we find the universal terms that appear in the divergent part of complexity from computing the bulk and joint terms on a regulated WDW patch.
All global solutions of arbitrary topology of the most general 1+1 dimensional dilaton gravity models are obtained. We show that for a generic model there are globally smooth solutions on any non-compact 2-surface. The solution space is parametrized explicitly and the geometrical significance of continuous and discrete labels is elucidated. As a corollary we gain insight into the (in general non-trivial) topology of the reduced phase space. The classification covers basically all 2D metrics of Lorentzian signature with a (local) Killing symmetry.
The Covariant Canonical Gauge theory of Gravity is generalized by including at the Lagrangian level all possible quadratic curvature invariants. In this approach, the covariant Hamiltonian principle and the canonical transformation framework are applied to derive a Palatini type gauge theory of gravity. The metric $g_{μν}$, the affine connection $γ\indices{^λ_{μν}}$ and their respective conjugate momenta, $k^{μνσ}$ and $q\indices{_η^{αξβ}}$ tensors, are the independent field components describing the gravity. The metric is the basic dynamical field, and the connection is the gauge field. The t…
Metastable states decay at zero temperature through quantum tunneling at an exponentially small rate, which depends on the Coleman-de Luccia instanton, also known as bounce. In some theories, the bounce may not exist or its on-shell action may be ill-defined or infinite, thus hindering the vacuum decay process. In this paper, we test this possibility in modified theories of gravity interacting with a real scalar field. We consider an Einstein-Hilbert term with a non-minimally coupled scalar field and a quadratic Ricci scalar contribution. To tackle the problem we use a new analytic method, wit…
We study the beta functions for four-dimensional conformal gravity using two different parametrizations of metric fluctuation, linear split and exponential parametrization. We find that after imposing the traceless conditions, the beta functions are the same in four dimensions though the dependence on the dimensions are quite different. This indicates the universality of these results. We also examine the beta functions in general quadratic theory with the Einstein and cosmological terms for exponential parametrization, and find that it leads to results for beta functions of dimensionful coupl…
We consider a modified form of gravity, which has an extra term quadratic in the Riemann tensor. This term mimics a Yang-Mills theory. The other defining characteristic of this gravity is having the affine connection independent of the metric. (The metricity of the metric is rejected, too, since it implies a Levi-Civita connection.) It is then shown that, in the low density limit, this modified gravity does not differ from the General Theory of Relativity. We then point out that its Lagrangian does not contain partials of the metric, so that the metric is not a quantum field, nor does it contr…
Adding terms quadratic in the curvature to the Einstein-Hilbert action renders gravity renormalizable. This property is preserved in the presence of the most general renormalizable couplings with (and of) a generic quantum field theory (QFT). The price to pay is a massive ghost, which is due to the higher derivatives that the terms quadratic in the curvature imply. In this paper the quadratic gravity scenario is reviewed including recent progress on the related stability problem of higher derivative theories. The renormalization of the theory is also reviewed and the final form of the full ren…
We discuss the choice of the Lagrangian in the Poincaré gauge theory of gravity. Drawing analogies to earlier de Sitter gauge models, we point out the possibility of deriving the Einstein-Cartan Lagrangian {\it without} cosmological term from a {\it modified} quadratic curvature invariant of {\it topological} type.
We find new static, spherically symmetric, and asymptotically flat vacuum solutions without horizon in Starobinsky's quadratic f(R) gravity. We systematically classify these solutions by an asymptotic analysis around the origin and find seven different integer Frobenius families. We numerically solve the exact equations of motion by a double-shooting method and specify boundary conditions by matching the numerical solution to the analytic solution of the linearised field equations in the weak field regime. We find that all integer Frobenius families can be connected to asymptotically flat solu…
In this paper we will study the complete equations of motion for a ghost free quadratic curvature infinite derivative gravity. We will argue that within the scale of non-locality, Schwarzschild-type singular metric solution is not {\it permissible}. Therefore, Schwarzschild-type vacuum solution which is a prediction in Einstein-Hilbert gravity may {\it not} persist within the region of non-locality. We will also show that just quadratic curvature gravity, without infinite derivatives, always allows Schwarzschild-type singular metric solution.
We discuss locally Weyl (scale) covariant generalisation of quadratic curvature gravity theory in three dimensions using Riemann-Cartan-Weyl space-times. We show that this procedure of Weyl gauging yields a consistent generalisation for a particular class of quadratic curvature gravity theories which includes the New Massive Gravity theory.
Black holes in $f(R)$-gravity are known to be unstable, especially the rotating ones. In particular, an instability develops that looks like the classical black hole bomb mechanism: the linearized modified Einstein equations are characterized by an effective mass that acts like a massive scalar perturbation on the Kerr solution in General Relativity, which is known to yield instabilities. In this note, we consider a special class of $f(R)$ gravity that has the property of being scale-invariant. As a prototype, we consider the simplest case $f(R)=R^2$ and show that, in opposition to the general…
We derive a covariant expression for the renormalized holographic entanglement entropy for Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) dual to Quadratic Curvature Gravity in arbitrary dimensions. This expression is written as the sum of the bare entanglement entropy functional obtained using standard conical defect techniques, and a counterterm defined at the boundary of the extremal surface of the functional. The latter corresponds to the cod-2 self-replicating part of the extrinsic counterterms when evaluated on the replica orbifold. This renormalization method isolates the universal terms of the hologr…
