Tensor perturbations of $f(R)$-branes

Abstract

We analyze the tensor perturbations of flat thick domain wall branes in $f(R)$ gravity. Our results indicate that under the transverse and traceless gauge, the metric perturbations decouple from the perturbation of the scalar field. Besides, the perturbed equation reduces to the familiar Klein-Gordon equation for massless spin-2 particles only when the bulk curvature is a constant or when $f(R)=R$. As an application of our results, we consider the possibility of localizing gravity on some flat thick branes. The stability of these brane solutions is also shortly discussed.