The Newtonian limit of fourth - order gravity Hans - Jürgen

The weak-field slow-motion limit of fourth-order gravity will be discussed. Let us consider the gravitational theory defined by the Lagrangian Lg = (8πG) −1 ( R/2 + (αRijR ij + βR)l ) . (1) G is Newton’s constant, l a coupling length and α and β numerical parameters. Rij and R are the Ricci tensor and its trace. Introducing the matter Lagrangian Lm and varying Lg + Lm one obtains the field equation Eij + αHij + βGij = 8πGTij . (2) For α = β = 0 this reduces to General Relativity Theory. The explicit expressions Hij and Gij can be found in STELLE (1978). In a well-defined sense, the weak-field slow-motion limit of Einstein’s theory is just Newton’s theory, cf. DAUTCOURT (1964). In the following we consider the analogous problem for fourth order gravity eqs. (1), (2). For the special cases α = 0 (PECHLANER, SEXL(1966), POLIJEVKTOVNIKOLADZE (1967)), α + 2β = 0 (HAVAS (1977), JANKIEWICZ (1981)) 1 and α+3β = 0 (BORZESZKOWSKI, TREDER, YOURGRAU (1978)) this has already been done in the past. Cf. also ANANDAN (1983), where torsion has been taken into account. The slow-motion limit can be equivalently described as the limit c→ ∞, where c is the velocity of light. In this sense we have to take the limit G→ 0 while G · c and l remain constants. Then the energy-momentum tensor Tij reduces to the rest mass density ρ: Tij = δ 0 i δ 0 j ρ , (3) x = t being the time coordinate. The metric can be written as ds = (1− 2φ)dt − (1 + 2ψ)(dx + dy + dz) . (4) Now eqs. (3) and (4) will be inserted into eq. (2). In our approach, products and time derivatives of φ and ψ can be neglected, i.e., R = 4∆ψ − 2∆φ , where ∆f = f,xx + f,yy + f,zz . Further R00 = −∆φ, H00 = −2∆R00 −∆R and G00 = −4∆R, where l = 1. Then it holds: The validity of the 00-component and of the trace of eq. (2), R00 −R/2 + αH00 + βG00 = 8πGρ (5) and − R− 4(α+ 3β)∆R = 8πGρ , (6) imply the validity of the full eq. (2). Now, let us discuss eqs. (5) and (6) in more details: Eq. (5) reads −∆φ−R/2 + α(2∆∆φ−∆R)− 4β∆R = 8πGρ . (7)