Well-posed formulation of Einstein-Maxwell effective field theory

Abstract: We consider the well-posedness of the initial value problem for Einstein-Maxwell theory modified by higher derivative effective field theory corrections. Field redefinitions can be used to bring the leading parity-symmetric 4-derivative corrections to a form which gives second order equations of motion. We show that a recently introduced "modified harmonic" gauge condition can be used to obtain a formulation of these theories which admits a well-posed initial value problem when the higher derivative corrections to the equations of motion are small.