The general second-order gravity theory, whose Lagrangian includes higher powers of the curvature, is considered in arbitrary dimensions. It is shown that spherically symmetric solutions are static, except in certain, special, unphysical cases. Spherically symmetric solutions are found and classified. Each theory’s solutions fall into a number of distinct branches, which may represent finite space with two singular boundaries, or an asymptotically either flat or (anti–)de Sitter space with one singular boundary. A theory may contain at most one branch of solutions in which all singularities are hidden by event horizons. Such horizons generally emit Hawking radiation, though in certain cases the horizon may have zero temperature. Black holes do not necessarily radiate away all their mass: they may terminate in a zero-temperature black hole, a naked singularity, or a hot black hole in equilibrium with a ‘‘cosmological’’ event horizon. The thermodynamics of black-hole solutions is discussed; entropy is found to be an increasing function of horizon area, and the first law is shown to hold.

• Received 12 May 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.38.3000