Noether Currents and Maxwell-type Equations of Motion in Higher Derivative Gravity Theories

Abstract

In general coordinate invariant gravity theories whose Lagrangians contain arbitrarily high order derivative fields, the Noether currents for the global translation and for the Nakanishi's IOSp(8|8) choral symmetry containing the BRS symmetry as its member, are constructed. We generally show that for each of those Noether currents a suitable linear combination of equations of motion can be brought into the form of Maxwell-type field equation possessing the Noether current as its source term.

27 pages, no figures