Second-order teleparallel gauge theory

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, we analyze second-order extensions of teleparallel theories of gravity as gauge theories for the translation group. We use Utiyama’s approach to gauge theories and show that it is possible to include second-order derivative terms in the Lagrangian of the gauge potential and preserve gauge invariance. Besides the usual field strength, a new object has to be introduced in order to preserve both gauge and diffeomorphism invariances. From this new object, we obtain a set of fourteen independent invariants which leads to equations that are linear in the fourth derivative of the tetrad field. We analyze a particular example with one of these invariants and evaluate the weak field limit, showing that the effective gravitational potential is a combination of Newton and Yukawa potentials.