Pith. sign in

REVIEW 6 cited by

Amplitudes and 4D Gauss-Bonnet Theory

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2004.10716 v2 pith:4IM5FZLM submitted 2020-04-22 hep-th gr-qc

classification hep-thgr-qc
keywords amplitudestheoryfour-dimensionalgauss--bonnetgeneralrelativityscatteringthere
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
0 comments
abstract

It has recently been argued that there may be a nontrivial four-dimensional limit of the higher-dimensional Gauss--Bonnet and Lovelock interactions and that this might provide a loophole allowing for new four-dimensional gravitational theories, possibly without a standard Lagrangian. We investigate this claim by studying tree-level graviton scattering amplitudes, allowing us to draw conclusions independently of the Lagrangian. By taking four-dimensional limits of higher-dimensional scattering amplitudes of the Gauss--Bonnet theory, we find four-dimensional amplitudes that are different from general relativity; however, these amplitudes are not new since they all come from certain scalar-tensor theories. The nontrivial limit that does not lead to infinite strong coupling around flat space leads to $(\partial\phi)^4$ theory. We argue that there cannot be any six-derivative purely gravitational four-point amplitudes in any dimension other than those coming from Lovelock theory by directly constructing the on-shell amplitudes. In particular, there can be no new such amplitudes in four dimensions beyond those of general relativity. We also present some new results on the spin-averaged cross section for graviton-graviton scattering in general relativity and Gauss--Bonnet theory in arbitrary dimensions.

Discussion (0). Sign in to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. All $2D$ generalised dilaton theories from $d\geq 4$ gravities

    hep-th 2026-03 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    Generic 2D Horndeski theories arise from dimensional reduction of d≥4 gravities, yielding a Birkhoff theorem for quasi-topological gravities where static spherically symmetric solutions satisfy g_tt g_rr = -1 and are ...

  2. Regular black holes from pure gravity in four dimensions

    gr-qc 2026-02 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    A construction of four-dimensional pure-gravity actions whose vacuum solutions include the Hayward and Dymnikova regular black holes, via a lift from two-dimensional Horndeski theory.

  3. A Note on the AdS/CFT Equivalence Transformation for Galileons in General Dimensions

    hep-th 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The AdS/CFT field redefinition for galileons is extended to all dimensions, and in odd dimensions the tadpole term is shown to be expressible via ordinary invariant terms.

  4. On the analogue of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory in 3+1 dimensions

    gr-qc 2025-05 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The trace anomaly effective action reproduces Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Friedmann equations and perturbation spectra on FRW backgrounds with a specific scalar field solution.

  5. Strong coupling and instabilities in singularity-free inflation from an infinite sum of curvature corrections

    gr-qc 2025-05 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The infinite-sum Lovelock inflation solution is ruled out by strong scalar coupling and tensor Laplacian instabilities.

  6. D-dimensional black holes in extended Gauss-Bonnet gravity

    gr-qc 2025-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Charged and rotating anti-de Sitter black hole solutions are constructed in extended Gauss-Bonnet gravity for dimensions three, four, five and higher.

Pith tools