A no-hair theorem for spherically symmetric black holes in $R^2$ gravity

Abstract: In a paper Ca~nate (CQG, {\bf 35}, 025018 (2018)) proved a no hair theorem to static and spherically symmetric or stationary axisymmetric black holes in general $f(R)$ gravity. The theorem applies for isolated asymptotically flat or asymptotically de Sitter black holes and also in the case when vacuum is replaced by a minimally coupled source having a traceless energy momentum tensor. This theorem excludes the case of pure quadratic gravity, $f(R) = R^2$. In this paper we use the scalar tensor representation of general $f(R)$ theory to show that there are no hairy black hole in pure $R^2$ gravity. The result is limited to spherically symmetric black holes but does not assume asymptotic flatness or de-Sitter asymptotics as in most of the no-hair theorems encountered in the literature. We include an example of a static and spherically symmetric black hole in $R^2$ gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field having a Higgs-type quartic potential.