Some consequences of the effective low-energy lagrangian for gravity

We consider the minimal low-energy action for gravity up to six derivatives which is renormalizable at the two-loop level modulo higher derivative corrections. Then we study the classical solutions corresponding to the Schwarzschild and the Robertson-Walker metrics. In the first case we find a singularity close to the gravitational radius and in the second case we find inflationary de Sitter solutions in absence of any matter or cosmological constant.Comment: 13 page

Area spectrum of the d-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom black hole in the small charge limit

A conjecture by Hod states that for the black hole horizon the spacing of its area spectrum is determined by the asymptotic value of its quasinormal frequencies. Recently to overcome some difficulties, Maggiore proposes some changes to the original Hod's conjecture. Taking into account the modifications proposed by Maggiore we calculate the area spectrum of the d-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom black hole in the small charge limit.Comment: 11 page

Area spectrum of the D-dimensional de Sitter spacetime

The determination of the quantum area spectrum of a black hole horizon by means of its asymptotic quasinormal frequencies has been explored recently. We believe that for D-dimensional de Sitter horizon we must study if the idea works. Thus taking into account the local description of the thermodynamics of horizons proposed by Padmanabhan and the results of Hod, Kunstatter, and Maggiore we study the area spectrum of the D-dimensional de Sitter horizon.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in Physics Letters

The Dirac equation in D-dimensional spherically symmetric spacetimes

We expound in detail a method frequently used to reduce the Dirac equation in D-dimensional (D >= 4) spherically symmetric spacetimes to a pair of coupled partial differential equations in two variables. As a simple application of these results we exactly calculate the quasinormal frequencies of the uncharged Dirac field propagating in the D-dimensional Nariai spacetime.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure