The gravitational field of isolated objects in quadratic gravity

Abstract

When describing gravity at high energies it is natural to introduce terms quadratic in the curvature as first corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Static, spherically symmetric classical solutions are studied in the case of the quantum-motivated $R+R^2+C^{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}C_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}$ theory. In contrast with the case of General Relativity, where the metric is forced to be the Schwarzschild one, a large spectrum of solutions with different gravitational potentials has been found. It is shown how these solutions populate the parameter space of the theory, and some possible phenomenological implications of this modified potential are discussed.