We consider holographic entanglement entropy in higher derivative gravity
theories. Recently Lewkowycz and Maldacena arXiv:1304.4926 have provided a
method to derive the equations for the entangling surface from first
principles. We use this method to compute the entangling surface in four
derivative gravity. Certain interesting differences compared to the two
derivative case are pointed out. For Gauss-Bonnet gravity, we show that in the
regime where this method is applicable, the resulting equations coincide with
proposals in the literature as well as with what follows from considerations of
the stress tensor on the entangling surface. Finally we demonstrate that the
area functional in Gauss-Bonnet holography arises as a counterterm needed to
make the Euclidean action free of power law divergences.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure. v3: typos corrected, published versio
