Strong Cosmic Censorship in higher curvature gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether higher curvature corrections in gravity theories can restore the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, finding that such corrections may actually worsen violations near extremality.

Contribution

The study provides the first explicit analysis of strong cosmic censorship in higher curvature gravity, revealing increased violations with stronger curvature corrections.

Findings

Violations of the conjecture occur near extremality.

Higher curvature terms can intensify the violation.

The conjecture is not restored by higher curvature corrections.

Abstract

Deterministic nature of general relativity is ensured by the strong cosmic censorship conjecture, which asserts that spacetime cannot be extended beyond Cauchy horizon with square integrable connection. Although this conjecture holds true for asymptotically flat black hole spacetimes in general relativity, a potential violation of this conjecture occurs in charged asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes. Since it is expected that Einstein-Hilbert action will involve higher curvature corrections, in this article we have studied whether one can restore faith in the strong cosmic censorship when higher curvature corrections to general relativity are considered. Contrary to our expectations, we have explicitly demonstrated that not only a violation to the conjecture occurs near extremality, but the violation appears to become stronger as the strength of the higher curvature term increases.