Fourth order spatial derivative gravity
In this work, we study a modified theory of gravity that contains up to fourth order spatial derivatives as a model for the Horava-Lifshitz gravity. The propagator is evaluated and, as a result, one extra pole is obtained, corresponding to a spin-2 nonrelativistic massless particle, an extra term which jeopardizes renormalizability, besides the unexpected general relativity unmodified propagator. Then unitarity is proved at the tree level, where the general relativity pole has been shown to have no dynamics, remaining only the 2 degrees of freedom of the new pole. Next, the nonrelativistic effective potential is determined from a scattering process of two identical massive gravitationally interacting bosons. In this limit, Newton's potential is obtained, together with a Darwin-like term that comes from the extra nonpole term in the propagator. Regarding renormalizability, this extra term may be harmful by power counting, but it can be eliminated by adjusting the free parameters of the model. This adjustment is in accord with the detailed balance condition suggested in the literature and shows that the way in which extra spatial derivative terms are added is of fundamental importance.