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Nonconformally Ricci-flat instantons in conformal gravity with and without nonlinear matter fields

Cristóbal Corral1,*, Borja Diez1,†, and Eleftherios Papantonopoulos2,‡

  • *Contact author: cristobal.corral@uai.cl
  • †Contact author: borjadiez1014@gmail.com
  • ‡Contact author: lpapa@central.ntua.gr
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 064015 – Published 6 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xgqn-z6f2

Abstract

In this work, we study nonconformally Ricci-flat gravitational instantons in four-dimensional conformal gravity, both in vacuum and in the presence of nonlinear conformal matter. First, the one-parameter extension of the Kerr-NUT-AdS metric is analyzed. We obtain their conserved charges by using the Noether-Wald formalism. It turns out that they receive corrections from the linear modes present in conformal gravity, which are properly identified. Then, we perform the analytic continuation into the Euclidean section and find the curve in parameter space along which this solution becomes regular and globally (anti)self-dual. Using the Dunajski-Tod theorem, we show that the self-dual metric is not conformally Ricci-flat. Then, the backreaction of nonlinear conformal matter is considered. In particular, we find new gravitational instantons in the presence of conformally coupled scalar fields and ModMax electrodynamics. We compute the partition function and conserved charges, which turn out to be finite by virtue of the conformal invariance of the theory. As a byproduct, we also obtain a generalization of the Riegert metric dressed with nonlinear conformal matter as a particular limit of these instantons. For all cases, we analyze the global properties, the curve in parameter space where the solutions are (anti)-self-dual, and the on-shell Euclidean action, among other features.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 064015– Published 6 March, 2026
  • Received 16 October 2025
  • Accepted 2 February 2026
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