Higher-Order Newton-Cartan Gravity

Abstract: We study the non-relativistic Newton-Cartan limit of higher-order gravity theories in arbitrary dimensions. We first study it at the level of the action by introducing an additional 1-form gauge field and coupling it appropriately to the gravity sector. We extend this procedure to any theory whose Lagrangian is a function of the Ricci scalar, quadratic Ricci tensor and quadratic Riemann tensor. We also study the limit of the equations of motion for two models, Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity and quadratic Ricci scalar theory. We prove that, in the first case, it is possible to obtain the Poisson equation by introducing a scalar field and imposing an appropriate constraint. In the latter case, we show that it is possible to get the Poisson equation from the limit of the equations of motion as long as the on-shell constraint used in the two-derivative theory is supplemented with a further condition. We give the expressions of the two higher-order corrected Poisson equations in terms of curvatures of Newton-Cartan geometry. In both cases, we derive the full set of non-relativistic equations and study their boost transformations. The two sets of equations of motion define zero-torsion Gauss-Bonnet Newton-Cartan gravity and zero-torsion quadratic Ricci scalar Newton-Cartan gravity.