Energy and stability in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet models

Abstract

A unified energy expression for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, valid about the model's two distinct vacua, is obtained. It reduces to the usual Einstein form about a flat background, but about an anti-de Sitter vacuum it becomes that appropriate to a ghost Einstein theory with a cosmological term. Linearisation instability about the latter and general stability about the former are deduced by energy considerations, in agreement with previous results.