Noether and Mei symmetries in static spherically symmetric quadratic gravity: variational consistency, constraints, and conserved curvature flux

Abstract

The symmetry content of static spherical $f(R)$ gravity is reconsidered for the pure quadratic model. We first derive the radial action without prematurely eliminating the equation carried by the radial metric variable. The Schwarzschild-type gauge may then be imposed while retaining its associated gravitational constraint. For the resulting system, radial translations and one combined scaling are exact off-shell Noether symmetries. The scaling charge reduces, on the constraint surface, to a conserved radial flux of the scalar curvature. The same flux follows independently from the trace of the four-dimensional field equations. Noether invariance, the strong point-Mei criterion, and Lie invariance of the Euler--Lagrange system are examined separately. Within the full polynomial point ansatz of total degree at most two, the Lie algebra contains precisely three independent generators. The flux also separates the solution space into a nonzero constant-curvature Einstein sector, a degenerate scalar-flat sector, and a dynamical-curvature sector. In particular, the scalar-flat sector permits a Reissner--Nordström-form metric, although its inverse-square coefficient has no electromagnetic meaning in the absence of a Maxwell field.