Higher Curvature Corrections Research Articles

On the species scale, modular invariance and the gravitational EFT expansion

The concept of the species scale as the quantum gravity cut-off has been recently emphasised in the context of the Swampland program. Along these lines, we continue the quest for a precise understanding of its role within effective field theories of gravity as well as a global definition of the latter in case there is enough supersymmetry preserved. To do so, we exploit duality symmetries, the familiar asymptotic dependence imposed by the presence of infinite towers of light states and the known behaviour of higher-curvature corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action in various String Theory setups. In those cases, we obtain a self-consistent result for the identification of the species scale as the quantum gravity cut-off, but also present some puzzles related to the suppression of certain higher-dimensional operators as well as minor ambiguities that may arise in the deep interior of moduli space.

Gauss–Bonnet AdS planar and spherical black hole thermodynamics and holography

Abstract In this work, we extend the study in Bilic and Fabris (2022 J. High Energy Phys. JHEP11(2022)013) incorporating the AdS/CFT duality to establish a relationship between the local temperatures (Tolman temperatures) of a large (AdS) spherical and a (AdS) planar Schwarzschild black hole near the AdS boundary considering Gauss–Bonnet (GB) curvature correction in the gravitational action. We have shown that the higher curvature corrections appear in the local temperature relationship due to the inclusion of GB term in the bulk. By transforming the metric into Fefferman–Graham form, we have calculated the energy density of the conformal fluid at the boundary. The obtained result contains finite coupling corrections which are holographically induced by the GB curvature correction in the bulk theory. Following the well known approach of fluid/gravity duality, the energy density of the conformal fluid at the boundary is then compared with the black body radiation energy density. This comparison shows that the energy density is proportional to the temperature of the conformal fluid. The temperature of the conformal fluid is then shown to be related to the Tolman temperature of the black hole which then eventually helps us to establish both the Hawking temperature and Tolman temperature relationship between large spherically symmetric and planar Schwarzschild black holes in GB gravity near the AdS boundary.

De Sitter geometric inflation from dynamical singularities

Within the framework of geometric inflation, where the Friedmann equation is modified to incorporate an infinite series of higher curvature corrections, we describe the emergence of a de Sitter inflationary phase near the poles of an arbitrary dynamical function. Our analysis is quite general and does not depend on any specific choice of cosmological dynamics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Dymnikova black hole from an infinite tower of higher-curvature corrections

Recently, in [1], it was demonstrated that various regular black hole metrics can be derived within a theory featuring an infinite number of higher curvature corrections to General Relativity. Moreover, truncating this infinite series at the first few orders already yields a reliable approximation of the observable characteristics of such black holes [2]. Here, we further establish the existence of another regular black hole solution, particularly the D-dimensional extension of the Dymnikova black hole, within the equations of motion incorporating an infinite tower of higher-curvature corrections. This solution is essentially nonperturbative in the coupling parameter, rendering the action, if it exists, incapable of being approximated by a finite number of powers of the curvature. In addition, we compute the dominant quasinormal frequencies of such black holes using both the Bernstein polynomial method and the 13th order WKB method with Padé approximants, obtaining a high degree of agreement between them.

Quantum and higher curvature corrections to the anti-de Sitter black hole

Quantum and higher curvature corrections to the anti-de Sitter black hole

Quasinormal Spectrum of (2+1)$(2+1)$‐Dimensional Asymptotically Flat, dS and AdS Black Holes

AbstractWhile ‐dimensional black holes in the Einstein theory allow for only the anti‐de Sitter (AdS) asymptotic, when the higher curvature correction is tuned on, the asymptotically flat, de Sitter, and AdS cases are included. Here, a detailed study of the stability and quasinormal spectra of the scalar field perturbations around such black holes with all three asymptotics is proposed. Calculations of the frequencies are fulfilled with the help of the 6th order Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) method with Pade approximants, Bernstein polynomial method, and time‐domain integration. Results obtained by all three methods are in a very good agreement in their common range of applicability. When the multipole moment is equal to zero, the purely imaginary, i.e., non‐oscillatory, modes dominate in the spectrum for all types of the asymptotic behavior, while the spectrum at higher resembles that in four‐dimensional spacetime with the corresponding asymptotic.

Entanglement degradation as a tool to detect signatures of modified gravity

We investigate entanglement degradation in the vicinity of a quantum corrected black hole. We consider a biprtite system (Alice-Rob) with Alice freely falling (radially) into the event horizon of a quantum corrected black hole and Rob being in the vicinity of the event horizon of the black hole. We consider a maximally entangled state (in the Fock basis) and start with the basic assumption that Rob is an uniformly accelerated observer. We then give a pedagogical analysis of the relation involving the Minkowski vaccum state and Rindler number states. Following the analogy given in Martín-Martínez [], we establish the relation between the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state and Boulware and anti-Bouware number states from the Minkowski-Rindler relation. We then write down the quantum corrected black hole metric by making use of the near horizon approximation in an appropriate form. Next, we obtain the analytical forms of logarithmic negativity and mutual information and plot as a function of Rob’s distance from the r=0 point. We observe that the entanglement degradation slows down because of the structural change in the lapse function of the metric via the incorporation of quantum gravity corrections in the Schwarzschild black hole. It is crucial to understand that any modified gravity theories that changes the metric structure results in a different rate of degradation of the entanglement. At the horizon radius, the entanglement degradation is always complete irrespective of the underlying theory. This observation may lead to the identification of the signature of modified gravity theories in a future generation of advanced observational scenarios. Such a modification can come from higher curvature corrections, higher dimensional gravity theories, quantum gravity corrections, etc. We can also interpret this effect as a noisy quantum channel with an operator sum representation of a completely positive and trace preserving map. We then finally obtain the entanglement fidelity using this operator sum representation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Probing bounce dynamics via Higher-Order Gauss-Bonnet modifications

In this paper, we focus on the Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory, which includes higher curvature corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. We investigate the possibility of obtaining a bouncing cosmology in this modified theory of gravity, where the Universe contracts until a minimum scale factor and then expands again. We examines four Higher-Order Gauss-Bonnet Gravity theory models within the FLRW formalism, emphasizing the Universe’s bouncing behavior to resolve Big-Bang cosmology’s singularity problem. We establish cosmological constraints over cosmic time, investigate bounce conditions, reconstruct Higher-Order Gauss-Bonnet Gravity for a hyperbolic expansion law, and extend this reconstruction using the red-shift parameter to derive cosmological parameters signifying accelerated Universe expansion. The stability of these models is subsequently evaluated through an arbitrary speed of sound function for late-time stability assessment. Our results suggest that the Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory can provide a viable mechanism for a non-singular bounce in the early universe.

Starobinsky inflation from string theory?

Starobinsky inflation is currently one of the best models concerning agreement with cosmological data. Despite this observational success, it is still lacking a robust embedding into a UV complete theory. Previous efforts to derive Starobinsky inflation from string theory have been based on the derivation of higher derivative curvature terms from the low-energy limit of ten-dimensional string theory. This approach is however known to fail due to the difficulty to tame the effect of contributions proportional to the Ricci scalar to a power larger than two. In this paper we investigate an alternative attempt which exploits instead the ubiquitous presence of scalar fields in string compactifications combined with the fact that Starobinsky inflation can be recast as Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field with a precise potential and conformal coupling to matter fermions. After showing that the dilaton does not feature the right Yukawa coupling to matter, we focus in particular on type IIB Kähler moduli since they have shown to lead to exponential potentials with a Starobinsky-like plateau. We consider three classes of moduli with a different topological origin: the volume modulus, bulk fibre moduli, and blow-up modes. The only modulus with the correct coupling to matter is the volume mode but its potential does not feature any plateau at large field values. Fibre moduli admit instead a potential very similar to Starobinsky inflation with a natural suppression of higher curvature corrections, but they cannot reproduce the correct conformal coupling to matter. Blow-up modes have both a wrong potential and a wrong coupling. Our analysis implies therefore that embedding Starobinsky inflation into string theory seems rather hard. Finally, it provides a detailed derivation of the coupling to matter of fibre moduli which could be used as a way to discriminate Starobinsky from fibre inflation.

Black hole entropy and moduli-dependent species scale

We provide a moduli-dependent definition of species scale in quantum gravity based on black hole arguments. Concretely, it is derived from a lower bound on the entropy of extremal black holes with higher curvature corrections, which ensures that the black hole can be reliably described within the effective theory. By demanding that our definition coincides with a recent proposal for a moduli-dependent species scale motivated from the topological string, we conclude that the conjecture ZBH=|Ztop|2 relating the black hole to the topological string partition functions should hold, at least within the regime of validity of our analysis.

Landscape of polymer quantum cosmology

We show that the quantization ambiguities of loop quantum cosmology, when considered in wider generality, can be used to produce discretionary dynamical behavior. There is an infinite dimensional space of ambiguities which parallels the infinite list of higher curvature corrections in perturbative quantum gravity. There is, however, an ensemble of qualitative consequences which are generic in the sense that they are independent of these ambiguities. Among these, one has well-defined fundamental dynamics across the big bang, as well as extra microscopic quantum degrees of freedom that might be relevant in discussions about unitarity in quantum gravity. We show that, in addition to the well-known bouncing solutions of the effective equations, there are other generic types of solutions for sufficiently soft initial conditions in the matter sector (tunneling solutions) where the scale factor goes through zero and the spacetime orientation is inverted. We also show that, generically, a contracting semiclassical universe branches off at the big bang into a quantum superposition of universes with different quantum numbers. Despite their lack of quantitative predictive power, these models offer a fertile playground for the discussion of qualitative and conceptual issues in quantum gravity.

Holographic p-Wave Superconductor with Excited States in 4D Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet Gravity

We construct a holographic p-wave superconductor with excited states in the 4D Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity using the Maxwell complex vector field model. In the probe limit, we observe that, the higher curvature correction or the higher excited state can hinder the vector condensate to be formed in the full parameter space, which is different from the holographic s-wave superconductor. Regardless of the choice of the vector mass by selecting the value of m2L2 or m2Leff2, we note that the critical chemical potential becomes evenly spaced for the number of nodes and that the difference of the critical chemical potential between the consecutive states depends on the curvature correction. Moreover, we find that the higher curvature correction or the higher excited state will alter the universal relation of the gap frequency, and the pole and delta function of the conductivity for the excited states can be broadened into the peaks with the finite width as the curvature correction increases.

Allowable complex scalars from Kaluza-Klein compactifications and metric rescalings

Recently there have been discussions about which complex metrics should be allowable in quantum gravity. These discussions assumed that the matter fields were real valued. We make the observation that for compactified solutions it makes sense to demand convergence of the theory's path integral in the higher-dimensional parent theory. Upon compactification this allows for more general matter configurations in the lower-dimensional theory, in particular it allows for complex scalar fields, with a bound on their imaginary parts. Similar considerations apply to metric rescalings in the presence of higher curvature corrections. We illustrate this effect with the example of the no--boundary proposal, in which scalar fields are typically required to take complex values. We find that complex no-boundary solutions exist, and satisfy the derived bound, if the potential is sufficiently flat. For instance, for a compactification from $D$ dimensions, the bound on the imaginary part $\textrm{Im}\,(\phi)$ of the internal volume modulus reads $V_{,\phi}/V < \sqrt{\frac{D-4}{D-2}}/3\sqrt{2}.$ This leads to a mild tension with swampland conjectures.

Generalized volume-complexity for two-sided hyperscaling violating black branes

In this paper, we investigate generalized volume-complexity mathcal{C} gen for a two-sided uncharged HV black brane in d + 2 dimensions. This quantity which was recently introduced in [48], is an extension of volume in the Complexity=Volume (CV) proposal, by adding higher curvature corrections with a coupling constant λ to the volume functional. We numerically calculate the growth rate of mathcal{C} gen for different values of the hyperscaling violation exponent θ and dynamical exponent z. It is observed that mathcal{C} gen always grows linearly at late times provided that we choose λ properly. Moreover, it approaches its late time value from below. For the case λ = 0, we find an analytic expression for the late time growth rate for arbitrary values of θ and z. However, for λ ≠ 0, the late time growth rate can only be calculated analytically for some specific values of θ and z. We also examine the dependence of the growth rate on d, θ, z and λ. Furthermore, we calculate the complexity of formation obtained from volume-complexity and show that it is not UV divergent. We also examine its dependence on the thermal entropy and temperature of the black brane. At the end, we also numerically calculate the growth rate of mathcal{C} gen for the case where the higher curvature corrections are a linear combination of the Ricci scalar, square of the Ricci tensor and square of the Riemann tensor. We show that for appropriate values of the coupling constants, the late time growth rate is again linear.

Higher-curvature generalization of Eguchi-Hanson spaces

We construct higher-dimensional generalizations of the Eguchi-Hanson gravitational instanton in the presence of higher-curvature deformations of general relativity. These spaces are solutions to Einstein gravity supplemented with the dimensional extension of the quadratic Chern-Gauss-Bonnet invariant in arbitrary even dimension $D=2m\geq 4$, and they are constructed out of non-trivial fibrations over $(2m-2)$-dimensional K\"ahler-Einstein manifolds. Different aspects of these solutions are analyzed; among them, the regularization of the on-shell Euclidean action by means of the addition of topological invariants. We also consider higher-curvature corrections to the gravity action that are cubic in the Riemann tensor and explicitly construct Eguchi-Hanson type solutions for such.

Absence of isolated critical points with nonstandard critical exponents in the four-dimensional regularization of Lovelock gravity

Hyperbolic vacuum black holes in Lovelock gravity theories of odd order $N$, in which $N$ denotes the order of higher-curvature corrections, are known to have the so-called isolated critical points with nonstandard critical exponents (as $\alpha = 0$, $\beta = 1$, $\gamma = N-1$, and $\delta = N$), different from those of mean-field critical exponents (with $\alpha = 0$, $\beta = 1/2$, $\gamma = 1$, and $\delta = 3$). Motivated by this important observation, here, we explore the consequences of taking the $D \to 4$ limit of Lovelock gravity and the possibility of finding nonstandard critical exponents associated with isolated critical points in four-dimensions by use of the four-dimensional regularization technique, proposed recently by Glavan and Lin \cite{Glavan2020}. To do so, we first present $\text{AdS}_4$ Einstein-Lovelock black holes with fine-tuned Lovelock couplings in the regularized theory, which is needed for our purpose. Next, it is shown that the regularized $4D$ Einstein-Lovelock gravity theories of odd order $N > 3$ do not possess any physical isolated critical point, unlike the conventional Lovelock gravity. In fact, the critical (inflection) points of the equation of state always occur for the branch of black holes with negative entropy. The situation is quite different for the case of the regularized $4D$ Einstein-Lovelock gravity with cubic curvature corrections ($N=3$). In this case ($N=3$), although the entropy is non-negative and the equation of state of hyperbolic vacuum black holes has a nonstandard Taylor expansion about its inflection point, but there is no criticality associated with this special point. At the inflection point, the physical properties of the black hole system change drastically ...

Holographic superconductivity in Einsteinian Cubic Gravity

We study the condensation of a charged scalar field in a (3 + 1)-dimensional asymptotically AdS background in the context of Einsteinian cubic gravity, featuring a holographic superconductor with higher curvature corrections corresponding to a CFT with a non-vanishing value of the stress tensor three-point function t4. As it was previously noticed for higher dimensional Gauss-Bonnet theory, we observe that the critical temperature of the superconducting phase transition is lowered as the higher curvature coupling grows.

Gravitational instantons with conformally coupled scalar fields

We present novel regular Euclidean solutions to General Relativity in presence of Maxwell and conformally coupled scalar fields. In particular, we consider metrics of the Eguchi-Hanson and Taub-NUT families to solve the field equations analytically. The solutions have nontrivial topology labeled by the Hirzebruch signature and Euler characteristic that we compute explicitly. We find that, although the solutions are locally inequivalent with the original (anti-)self-dual Eguchi-Hanson metric, they have the same global properties in the flat limit. We revisit the Taub-NUT solution previously found in the literature, analyze their nuts and bolts structure, and obtain the renormalized Euclidean on-shell action as well as their topological invariants. Additionally, we discuss how the solutions get modified in presence of higher-curvature corrections that respect conformal invariance. In the conformally invariant case, we obtain novel Eguchi-Hanson and Taub-NUT solutions and demonstrate that both Euclidean on-shell action and Noether-Wald charges are finite without any reference to intrinsic boundary counterterms.

Generalized Lense-Thirring metrics: higher-curvature corrections and solutions with matter

The Lense-Thirring spacetime describes a 4-dimensional slowly rotating approximate solution of vacuum Einstein equations valid to a linear order in rotation parameter. It is fully characterized by a single metric function of the corresponding static (Schwarzschild) solution. In this paper, we introduce a generalization of the Lense-Thirring spacetimes to the higher-dimensional multiply-spinning case, with an ansatz that is not necessarily fully characterized by a single (static) metric function. This generalization lets us study slowly rotating spacetimes in various higher curvature gravities as well as in the presence of non-trivial matter. Moreover, the ansatz can be recast in Painlevé-Gullstrand form (and thence is manifestly regular on the horizon) and admits a tower of exact rank-2 and higher rank Killing tensors that rapidly grows with the number of dimensions. In particular, we construct slowly multiply-spinning solutions in Lovelock gravity and notably show that in four dimensions Einstein gravity is the only non-trivial theory amongst all up to quartic curvature gravities that admits a Lense-Thirring solution characterized by a single metric function.

New topological Gauss-Bonnet black holes in five dimensions

We investigate vacuum static black hole solutions of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity with a negative cosmological constant in five dimensions. These are solutions with horizons of nontrivial topologies. The first one possesses a horizon with the topology $S^1 \times H^2$, and a varying Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant $\alpha$. By looking into its thermodynamic properties, we find that its specific heat capacity with fixed volume is negative, therefore it is thermodynamically unstable. The second one is equipped with a so-called "Sol-manifold" as its horizon, and interestingly, the product of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant $\alpha$ and the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is fixed. For the second solution, the total energy and entropy vanish. These results enlarge our knowledge of both topological black holes in higher dimensions and the property of higher curvature corrections of gravitational theories.