Higher Curvature Corrections Research Articles

Novel higher-curvature variations of R2 inflation

We put forward novel extensions of Starobinsky inflation, involving a class of 'geometric' higher-curvature corrections that yield second-order Friedmann-Lema\^itre equations and second-order-in-time linearized equations around cosmological backgrounds. We determine the range of models within this class that admit an extended phase of slow roll inflation as an attractor. By embedding these theories in anti-de Sitter space, we derive holographic 'unitarity' bounds on the two dominant higher-order curvature corrections. Finally we compute the leading corrections to the spectral properties of scalar and tensor primordial perturbations, including the modified consistency relation $r=-8n_{T}$. Remarkably, the range of models singled out by holography nearly coincides with the current observational bounds on the scalar spectral tilt. Our results indicate that future observations have the potential to discriminate between different higher-curvature corrections considered here.

Cosmological consequences of a principle of finite amplitudes

Over 30 years ago, Barrow & Tipler proposed the principle according to which the action integrated over the entire 4-manifold describing the universe should be finite. Here we explore the cosmological consequences of a related criterion, namely that semi-classical transition amplitudes from the early universe up to current field values should be well defined. On a classical level, our criterion is weaker than the Barrow-Tipler principle, but it has the advantage of being sensitive to quantum effects. We find significant consequences for early universe models, in particular: eternal inflation and strictly cyclic universes are ruled out. Within general relativity, the first phase of evolution cannot be inflationary, and it can be ekpyrotic only if the scalar field potential is trustworthy over an infinite field range. Quadratic gravity eliminates all non-accelerating backgrounds near a putative big bang (thus imposing favourable initial conditions for inflation), while the expected infinite series of higher-curvature quantum corrections eliminates Lorentzian big bang spacetimes altogether. The scenarios that work best with the principle of finite amplitudes are the no-boundary proposal, which gives finite amplitudes in all dynamical theories that we have studied, and string-inspired loitering phases. We also comment on the relationship of our proposal to the swampland conjectures.

On small black holes, KK monopoles and solitonic 5-branes

We review and extend results on higher-curvature corrections to different configurations describing a superposition of heterotic strings, KK monopoles, solitonic 5-branes and momentum waves. Depending on which sources are present, the low-energy fields describe a black hole, a soliton or a naked singularity. We show that this property is unaltered when perturbative higher-curvature corrections are included, provided the sources are fixed. On the other hand, this character may be changed by appropriate introduction (or removal) of sources regardless of the presence of curvature corrections, which constitutes a non-perturbative modification of the departing system. The general system of multicenter KK monopoles and their 5-brane charge induced by higher-curvature corrections is discussed in some detail, with special attention paid to the possibility of merging monopoles. Our results are particularly relevant for small black holes (Dabholkar-Harvey states, DH), which remain singular after quadratic curvature corrections are taken into account. When there are four non-compact dimensions, we notice the existence of a black hole with regular horizon whose entropy coincides with that of the DH states, but the charges and supersymmetry preserved by both configurations are different. A similar construction with five non-compact dimensions is possible, in this case with the same charges as DH, although it fails to reproduce the DH entropy and supersymmetry. No such configuration exists if d > 5, which we interpret as reflecting the necessity of having a 5-brane wrapping the compact space.

Quantum origin of inflation in the geometric inflation model

In this paper we investigate the cosmological dynamics of geometric inflation by means of the tools of the dynamical systems theory. We focus in the study of two explicit models where it is possible to sum the infinite series of higher curvature corrections that arises in the formalism. These would be very interesting possibilities since, if regard gravity as a quantum effective theory, a key feature is that higher powers of the curvature invariants are involved at higher loops. Hence, naively, consideration of the whole infinite tower of curvature invariants amounts to consideration of all of the higher order loops. The global dynamics of these toy models in the phase space is discussed and the quantum origin of primordial inflation is exposed.

Higher-curvature corrections and tensor modes

Higher-curvature corrections to the effective gravitational action may leave signatures in the spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations if the inflationary energy scale is sufficiently high. In this paper we further investigate the effects of a coupling of the Inflaton field to higher-curvature tensors in models with a minimal breaking of conformal symmetry. We show that an observable violation of the tensor consistency relation from higher-curvature tensors implies also a relatively large running of the tensor tilt, enhanced even by some order of magnitude with respect to the standard slow roll case. This may leave signatures in the tensor two-point function that we could test to recognize higher-curvature effects, above all if they are translated into a blue tilted spectrum visible by future Gravitational Wave experiments. Exploiting current cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave data we also derive constraints on the inflationary parameters, inferring that large higher-curvature corrections seem to be disfavored.

Small free field inflation in higher curvature gravity

Within General Relativity, a minimally coupled scalar field governed by a quadratic potential is able to produce an accelerated expansion of the universe provided its value and excursion are larger than the Planck scale. This is an archetypical example of the so called large field inflation models. We show that by including higher curvature corrections to the gravitational action in the form of the Geometric Inflation models, it is possible to obtain accelerated expansion with a free scalar field whose values are well below the Planck scale, thereby turning a traditional large field model into a small field one. We provide the conditions the theory has to satisfy in order for this mechanism to operate, and we present two explicit models illustrating it. Finally, we present some open questions raised by this scenario in which inflation takes place completely in a higher curvature dominated regime, such as those concerning the study of perturbations.

Holographic superconductors in 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

We investigate the neutral AdS black-hole solution in the consistent D → 4 Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity proposed in [K. Aoki, M.A. Gorji, and S. Mukohyama, Phys. Lett. B810 (2020) 135843] and construct the gravity duals of (2 + 1)-dimensional superconductors with Gauss-Bonnet corrections in the probe limit. We find that the curvature correction has a more subtle effect on the scalar condensates in the s-wave superconductor in (2 + 1)-dimensions, which is different from the finding in the higher-dimensional superconductors that the higher curvature correction makes the scalar hair more difficult to be developed in the full parameter space. However, in the p-wave case, we observe that the higher curvature correction always makes it harder for the vector condensates to form in various dimensions. Moreover, we note that the higher curvature correction results in the larger deviation from the expected relation in the gap frequency ωg/Tc ≈ 8 in both (2 + 1)-dimensional s-wave and p-wave models.

Scalar cosmological perturbations in M-theory with higher-derivative corrections

Abstract We investigate the inflationary expansion of the universe induced by higher-curvature corrections in M-theory. The inflationary evolution of the geometry is discussed in K. Hiraga and Y. Hyakutake, Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2018, 113B03 (2018), which we follow to analyze metric perturbations around the background. We especially focus on scalar perturbations and analyze linearized equations of motion for the scalar perturbations. By solving these equations explicitly, we evaluate the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation. The scalar spectrum index is estimated under some assumptions, and we show that it becomes close to 1.

Quantum BTZ black hole

We study a holographic construction of quantum rotating BTZ black holes that incorporates the exact backreaction from strongly coupled quantum conformal fields. It is based on an exact four-dimensional solution for a black hole localized on a brane in AdS4, first discussed some years ago but never fully investigated in this manner. Besides quantum CFT effects and their backreaction, we also investigate the role of higher-curvature corrections in the effective three-dimensional theory. We obtain the quantum-corrected geometry and the renormalized stress tensor. We show that the quantum black hole entropy, which includes the entanglement of the fields outside the horizon, satisfies the first law of thermodynamics exactly, even in the presence of backreaction and with higher-curvature corrections, while the Bekenstein-Hawking-Wald entropy does not. This result, which involves a rather non-trivial bulk calculation, shows the consistency of the holographic interpretation of braneworlds. We compare our renormalized stress tensor to results derived for free conformal fields, and for a previous holographic construction without backreaction effects, which is shown to be a limit of the solutions in this article.

Softly broken conformal symmetry with higher curvature terms

In a scalar-coupled-gravity model, the quadratically divergent counter term appearing in the mass renormalization of the scalar fields must inherit corrections arising out of gravitational interactions. In this work we have explicitly demonstrated that there are no such corrections of gravitational origin to the quadratic divergences in the mass counter terms. This statement holds true irrespective of the nature of the gravitational interaction, i.e., whether gravity is described by general relativity or f(R) theory. Interestingly, it also turns out that the one loop effective action of scalar-coupled-gravity system will be well-behaved \emph{if and only if} the $f(R)$ theory is free from ghosts. In particular, the results derived in the context of f(R) theory are shown to be in exact agreement with the corresponding results derived from the equivalent scalar-tensor representation. Our analysis suggests the tantalizing possibility that the masses of the scalar fields can be consistently kept smaller than some Ultra Violet (UV) cutoff scale and is independent of the nature of the gravity theory, which may involve higher curvature corrections. All these will be true provided the matter fields and the gravity theory can be embedded consistently into a UV complete theory at the Planck scale.

BTZ black holes with higher curvature corrections in the 3D Einstein-Lovelock gravity

The regularization procedure for getting the four-dimensional nontrivial Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet effective description of gravity and its Lovelock generalization has been recently developed. Here we propose the regularization for the three-dimensional gravity, which is based on the rescaling of the coupling constants and, afterward, taking the limit $D \to 3$. We obtain the generalization of the Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli solution in the presence of the higher curvature (Gauss-Bonnet and Lovelock) corrections of any order. The obtained general solution shows a peculiar behavior: The event horizon is allowed not only for asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes, but also for the de-Sitter and flat cases, when the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant is negative. The factor of the electric charge is analyzed as well for various branches of the solution and the Hawking temperature is obtained.

Horizon symmetries and hairy black holes in AdS

We investigate whether supertranslation symmetry may appear in a scenario that involves black holes in AdS space. The framework we consider is massive 3D gravity, which admits a rich black hole phase space, including stationary AdS black holes with softly decaying hair. We consider a set of asymptotic conditions that permits such decaying near the boundary, and which, in addition to the local conformal symmetry, is preserved by an extra local current. The corresponding algebra of diffeomorphisms consists of two copies of Virasoro algebra in semi-direct sum with an infinite-dimensional Abelian ideal. We then reorient the analysis to the near horizon region, where infinite-dimensional symmetries also appear. The supertranslation symmetry at the horizon yields an infinite set of non-trivial charges, which we explicitly compute. The zero-mode of these charges correctly reproduces the black hole entropy. In contrast to Einstein gravity, in the higher-derivative theory subleading terms in the near horizon expansion contribute to the near horizon charges. Such terms happen to capture the higher-curvature corrections to the Bekenstein area law.

Reply to “Comment on: ‘Interaction of the magnetic quadrupole moment of a non-relativistic particle with an electric field in a rotating frame. Ann. Phys. 412 (2020) 168040’ ”

Quasinormal modes of black holes were previously calculated in a non-linear electrodynamics and in the Gauss–Bonnet gravity theory. Here we take into consideration both of the above factors and find quasinormal modes of a (massive) scalar field in the background of a black hole in the five-dimensional Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity coupled to a non-linear electrodynamics having Maxwellian weak-field limit. For the non-linear electrodynamics we considered the high frequency (eikonal) regime of oscillations analytically, while for the lower multipoles the higher order WKB analysis with the help of Padé approximants and the time domain integration were used. We found that perturbations of a test scalar field violate the inequality between the damping rate of the least damped mode and the Hawking temperature, known as the Hod’s proposal. This does not exclude the situation in which gravitational spectrum may restore the Hod’s inequality, so that only the analysis of the full spectrum, including gravitational perturbations, will show if the quasinormal modes we found here for the scalar field can be a counterexample to the Hod’s conjecture or not. We also revealed that in such a system, which includes the higher curvature corrections and non-linear electrodynamics, for perturbations of a massive scalar field there exists the phenomenon of the arbitrary long lived quasinormal modes — quasiresonances.

4D Einstein-Lovelock black holes: Hierarchy of orders in curvature

The Einstein-Lovelock theory contains an infinite series of corrections to the Einstein term with an increasing power of the curvature. It is well-known that for large black holes the lowest (Gauss-Bonnet) term is the dominant one, while for smaller black holes higher curvature corrections become important. We will show that if one is limited by positive values of the coupling constants, then the dynamical instability of black holes serves as an effective cut-off of influence of higher curvature corrections in the 4D Einstein-Lovelock approach: the higher is the order of the Lovelock term, the smaller is the maximal value of the coupling constant allowing for stability, so that effectively only a first few orders can deform the observable values seemingly. For negative values of coupling constants this is not so, and, despite some suppression of higher order terms also occurs due to the decreasing threshold values of the coupling constant, this does not lead to an noticeable opportunity to neglect higher order corrections. In the case a lot of orders of Lovelock theory are taken into account, so that the black-hole solution depends on a great number of coupling constants, we propose a compact description of it in terms of only two or three parameters encoding all the observable values.

Probing massive scalar fields from a pulsar in a stellar triple system

Pulsar timing observations precisely test general relativity. Recently, the hierarchical triple system PSR J0337 + 1715 has placed new constraints on the existence of a fifth force from violation in the strong equivalence principle. Many alternative gravity theories exist with massive (pseudo-)scalar fields to explain a variety of phenomena from the accelerating expansion of the Universe at large scales to the QCD strong CP problem at small scales. We here develop a generic formalism for the fifth force effect in theories involving massive scalar fields arising from e.g. string theory. With PSR J0337 measurements, we find the strongest bound on the simplest theory with a massive scalar field beyond general relativity and derive new constraints in other theories with axions, dark matter mediators, and higher-curvature corrections. These results show that the triple system J0337 provides a stringent test for massive scalar fields.

Quasinormal modes of black holes in 5D Gauss–Bonnet gravity combined with non-linear electrodynamics

Quasinormal modes of black holes were previously calculated in a non-linear electrodynamics and in the Gauss–Bonnet gravity theory. Here we take into consideration both of the above factors and find quasinormal modes of a (massive) scalar field in the background of a black hole in the five-dimensional Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity coupled to a non-linear electrodynamics having Maxwellian weak-field limit. For the non-linear electrodynamics we considered the high frequency (eikonal) regime of oscillations analytically, while for the lower multipoles the higher order WKB analysis with the help of Padé approximants and the time domain integration were used. We found that perturbations of a test scalar field violate the inequality between the damping rate of the least damped mode and the Hawking temperature, known as the Hod’s proposal. This does not exclude the situation in which gravitational spectrum may restore the Hod’s inequality, so that only the analysis of the full spectrum, including gravitational perturbations, will show if the quasinormal modes we found here for the scalar field can be a counterexample to the Hod’s conjecture or not. We also revealed that in such a system, which includes the higher curvature corrections and non-linear electrodynamics, for perturbations of a massive scalar field there exists the phenomenon of the arbitrary long lived quasinormal modes — quasiresonances.

Strong cosmic censorship conjecture in higher curvature gravity

Deterministic nature of general relativity is ensured by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, which asserts that spacetime cannot be extended beyond Cauchy horizon with square integrable connection. Although this conjecture holds true for asymptotically flat black hole spacetimes in general relativity, a potential violation of this conjecture occurs in charged asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes. Since it is expected that Einstein-Hilbert action will involve higher curvature corrections, in this article we have studied whether one can restore faith in the strong cosmic censorship when higher curvature corrections to general relativity are considered. Contrary to our expectations, we have explicitly demonstrated that not only a violation to the conjecture occurs near extremality, but the violation appears to become stronger as the strength of the higher curvature term increases.

Analytical study of holographic p-wave superfluid models in Gauss\u2013Bonnet gravity

In Gauss–Bonnet gravity, we analytically investigate the p-wave superfluid models in five dimensional AdS soliton and AdS black hole in order to explore the influences of the higher curvature correction on the holographic superfluid phase transition. We observe that the analytical findings are in good agreement with the numerical computations. Our results show that the critical chemical potential of the system increases with the increase of the Gauss–Bonnet parameter in AdS soliton background, while the critical temperature decreases as the Gauss–Bonnet factor grows if the phase transition of the system is of the second order in AdS black hole background, both of which indicate that the higher curvature correction hinders the formation of the condensation of the vector operator. Moreover, the critical exponent of the system takes the mean-field value 1/2, which is independent of the Gauss–Bonnet parameter and the spatial component of the gauge field.

Shadow of charged black holes in Gauss\u2013Bonnet gravity

In this paper, we investigate the effect of higher curvature corrections from Gauss–Bonnet gravity on the shadow of charged black holes in both AdS and Minkowski spacetimes. The null geodesic equations are computed in d=5 spacetime dimensions by using the directions of symmetries and Hamilton–Jacobi equation. With the null geodesics in hand, we then proceed to evaluate the celestial coordinates (alpha , beta ) and the radius R_s of the black hole shadow and represent it graphically. The effects of charge Q of the black hole and the Gauss–Bonnet parameter gamma on the radius of the shadow R_s is studied in detail. It is observed that the Gauss–Bonnet parameter gamma affects the radius of the black hole shadow R_s differently for the AdS black hole spacetime in comparison to the black hole spacetime which is asymptotically flat. In particular the radius of the black hole shadow increases with increase in the Gauss–Bonnet parameter in case of the AdS black hole spacetime and decreases in case of the asymptotically flat black hole spacetime. We then introduce a plasma background in order to observe the change in the silhouette of the black hole shadow due to a change in the refractive index of the plasma medium. Finally, we study the effect of the Gauss–Bonnet parameter gamma on the energy emission rate of the black hole which depends on the black hole shadow radius and represent the results graphically.

Higher-curvature corrections to holographic mutual information

In this paper, we study some non-local measurements of quantum correlations in extended gravities with higher-order curvature terms, including conformal gravity. Precisely, we consider higher-curvature correction on holographic mutual information in conformal gravity. There is in fact one deformation in the states because of the higher-curvature corrections. Here by making use of the holographic methods, we study the deformation in the holographic mutual information due to the higher-curvature terms. We also address the change in the quantum phase transition due to these deformations.