2014/05/30 by Hamid R. Afshar, Eric A. Bergshoeff, Wout Merbis · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep08(2014)115
35p, v2; minor changes, references added
arxiv created 2014/05/30 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19
Using a first order Chern-Simons-like formulation of gravity we systematically construct higher-derivative extensions of general relativity in three dimensions. The construction ensures that the resulting higher-derivative gravity theories are free of scalar ghosts. We canonically analyze these theories and construct the gauge generators and the boundary central charges. The models we construct are all consistent with a holographic c-theorem which, however, does not imply that they are unitary. We find that Born-Infeld gravity in three dimensions is contained within these models as a subclass.