Gravity Waves in Three Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper derives explicit solutions for gravity waves in three-dimensional higher derivative gravity theories, including special cases where certain excitations vanish, advancing understanding of such models.

Contribution

It provides explicit forms of wave solutions in the most general 3D higher derivative gravity, including critical cases with massless spin-2 modes.

Findings

Explicit solutions for anti-de Sitter plane, spherical, and pp waves.

Analysis of six-derivative and critical theories with massless excitations.

Clarification of wave behavior in complex higher derivative gravity models.

Abstract

We find the explicit forms of the anti-de Sitter plane, anti-de Sitter spherical, and pp waves that solve both the linearized and exact field equations of the most general higher derivative gravity theory in three dimensions. As a sub-class, we work out the six derivative theory and the critical version of it where the masses of the two spin-2 excitations vanish and the spin-0 excitations decouple.