Symmetric teleparallel Gauss-Bonnet gravity and its extensions

Abstract

General teleparallel theories assume that curvature is vanishing in which case gravity can be solely represented by torsion and/or nonmetricity. Using differential form language, we express the Riemannian Gauss-Bonnet invariant concisely in terms of two general teleparallel Gauss-Bonnet invariants, a bulk and a boundary one. Both terms are boundary terms in four dimensions. We also find that the split is not unique and present two possible alternatives. In the absence of nonmetricity our expressions coincide with the well-known metric teleparallel Gauss-Bonnet invariants for one of the splits. Next, we focus on the description where only nonmetricity is present and show some examples in different spacetimes. We finish our discussion by formulating novel modified symmetric teleparallel theories constructed with our new scalars.