Kerr–Schild–Kundt metrics in generic gravity theories with modified Horndeski couplings

Abstract

The Kerr–Schild–Kundt (KSK) metrics are known to be one of the universal metrics in general relativity, which means that they solve the vacuum field equations of any gravity theory constructed from the curvature tensor and its higher-order covariant derivatives. There is yet no complete proof that these metrics are universal in the presence of matter fields such as electromagnetic and/or scalar fields. In order to get some insight into what happens when we extend the “universality theorem” to the case in which the electromagnetic field is present, as a first step, we study the KSK class of metrics in the context of modified Horndeski theories with Maxwell’s field. We obtain exact solutions of these theories representing the pp-waves and AdS-plane waves in arbitrary D dimensions.