Ricci cubic gravity in d dimensions, gravitons and SAdS/Lifshitz black holes

A special class of higher curvature theories of gravity, Ricci Cubic Gravity (RCG), in general d dimensional space-time has been investigated in this paper. We have used two different approaches, the linearized equations of motion and auxiliary field formalism to study the massive and massless graviton propagating modes of the AdS background. Using the auxiliary field formalism, we have found the renormalized boundary stress tensor to compute the mass of Schwarzschild AdS and Lifshitz black holes in RCG theory.