On memory effect in modified gravity theories

Abstract

In this work, we discuss the gravitational memory effect in higher derivative and infinite derivative gravity theories and give the detailed relevant calculations whose results were given in our recent works. We show that the memory effect in higher derivative gravity takes the same form as in pure GR at large distances, whereas at small distances, the results are different. We also demonstrate that, in infinite derivative gravity, the memory is reduced via error function as compared to Einstein’s gravity. For the lower bound on the mass scale of nonlocality, the memory essentially reproduces the usual GR result at distances above very small distances.