Search

We consider the consequences of the leading quartic corrections to the Einstein–Hilbert action of gravity at low energy. Using the equivalence between the scalar R 2 contribution and a scalar-tensor field theory, we analyze the possible ways of detecting the associated scalaron and suggest that short distance tests of gravity, and in particular future tests of Newton's law aboard satellites, would provide the best environment to detect such a modification of gravity. We also analyze the regimes for which the R 2 theory would result as a low energy manifestation of putative high energy UV completions involving extra dimensions. In the four-dimensional N = 1 supergravity limit of such extra-dimensional models, the R 2 models would emerge from the stabilization of a nearly no-scale superfield such as the ones associated to the Kähler modulus corresponding to the breathing mode of a six-dimensional compactification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]