PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

We investigate the degrees of freedom which contribute to the gravitational radiation in a general class of higher derivative gravity models. First, we linearize the theory for a flat background metric in Teyssandier gauge. The higher-order derivative field equations for the metric perturbation can be reduced to three field equations of second order for a massive spin-0 field, a massless spin-2 field and a massive spin-2 field. In general, this theory contains eight degrees of freedom, which contribute to the gravitational radiation. One degree of freedom from the massive spin-0 field, two from the massless spin-2 field and five from the massive spin-2 field. We show that for all three fields only the quadrupole moment contributes to the gravitational radiation from an idealized binary system. Especially, for the massive spin-2 field we demonstrate that the harmonic gauge condition is induced dynamically and only the two transverse modes are excited.