Higher-Curvature Gravity, Black Holes and Holography

Understand

Recently, the identification of new higher-curvature interactions known as Einsteinian cubic gravity (ECG) and Generalized quasi-topological gravities (GQGs) has allowed for important advances in the study of black hole solutions and holographic applications of higher-order gravity.

• These theories are characterized by having second-order linearized equations on maximally symmetric background and by possessing static, spherically symmetric (SSS) black hole solutions satisfying $g_{tt}g_{rr}=-1$, and whose thermodynamic properties can be studied analytically in a fully non-perturbative fashion.
• In the first part of this thesis, we perform a detailed analysis of the weak-field limit of $\mathcal{L}($Riemann$)$ theories and of the condition $g_{tt}g_{rr}=-1$ on SSS solutions, and we review the construction of ECG and Generalized quasi-topological gravities.
• In addition, we show that GQGs could serve as building blocks to construct the most general EFT for gravity.