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Nonperturbative suppression of beyond-general-relativity effects in quadratic gravity

Georgios Antoniou1,2,3,*, Leonardo Gualtieri4,5,†, and Paolo Pani2,3,‡

  • *Contact author: georgiosantoniou@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
  • †Contact author: leonardo.gualtieri@unipi.it
  • ‡Contact author: paolo.pani@uniroma1.it
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 124068 – Published 22 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8r69-19zy

Abstract

Quadratic gravity is a well-motivated extension of general relativity (GR) wherein the Einstein-Hilbert action is augmented by quadratic curvature terms. This theory is equivalent to GR in an effective-field-theory framework, while the two theories are different at the nonperturbative level. As we have recently shown, black holes in quadratic gravity have a rich linear response, including extra scalar, vector, and tensor quasinormal modes that can be excited in physical processes, even when the stationary solution is the same as in GR. Here, by studying the gravitational-wave emission from point particles plunging into a Schwarzschild black hole in quadratic gravity, we show that observable deviations from GR are exponentially suppressed in the GR limit. This provides a nonperturbative realization of the equivalence between quadratic gravity and GR predicted in the effective-field-theory framework.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 124068– Published 22 June, 2026
  • Received 13 April 2026
  • Accepted 4 June 2026
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