Emission of Gravitational Waves in Quadratic Theories of Gravity
gravitational waves, modified gravity, quadratic gravity, circular orbits.
Despite the unquestionable success of General Relativity (GR) in being able to describe and predict several gravitational
phenomena, this theory still has some internal issues of interest for cosmology and high energy physics, e.g. singularities, dark
energy, cosmology of the early universe, quantum gravity, etc. Extended theories of gravity, which consist of modifications in
GR, have been shown to be a possible solution to these problems. Therefore, in this work we will study a quadratic theory of
gravity, where the terms 𝛼𝑅 2 and 𝛾𝑅 𝜈𝜉 𝑅 𝜈𝜉 are added to the Einstein-Hilbert action with 𝛼 and 𝛾 being dimensionless coupling
constants. This theory is usually present\ in several works being linked to the renormalization issues of gravity. In this work we
will study the main aspects of this quadratic theory, focusing mainly on the properties of new fields that manifest themselves in
the theory through the solution of linearized field equations. Thus, we will analyze the role that these fields play in the orbital
evolution of a point mass system in a circular orbit due to
the emission of gravitational waves.