Almost universal spacetimes in higher-order gravity theories

Abstract

We study almost universal spacetimes - spacetimes for which the field equations of any generalized gravity with the Lagrangian constructed from the metric, the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives of arbitrary order reduce to one single differential equation and one algebraic condition for the Ricci scalar. We prove that all d-dimensional Kundt spacetimes of Weyl type III and traceless Ricci type N are almost universal. Explicit examples of Weyl type II almost universal Kundt metrics are also given. The considerable simplification of the field equations of higher-order gravity theories for almost universal spacetimes is then employed to study new Weyl type II, III, and N vacuum solutions to quadratic gravity in arbitrary dimension and six-dimensional conformal gravity. Necessary conditions for almost universal metrics are also studied.

arXiv comment17 pages, final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. D

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Impulsive waves in ghost free infinite derivative gravity in anti-de Sitter spacetime
• Exact solutions of non-local gravity in a class of almost universal spacetimes
• Kerr-Schild-Kundt Metrics in Generic Gravity Theories with Modified Horndeski Couplings
• Einstein-Maxwell fields with vanishing higher-order corrections
• Kerr-Schild-Kundt Metrics in Generic Einstein-Maxwell Theories
• Exact gyratons in higher and infinite derivative gravity
• Kundt Gravitational Waves Coupled with a Non-Noetherian Conformal Scalar Field
• Almost Universal Metrics
• Gauge fields with vanishing scalar invariants