Rectifying No-Hair Theorems in Gauss-Bonnet theory

Abstract: We revisit the no-hair theorems in Einstein-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory with a general coupling function between the scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet term in four dimensional spacetime. In the case of the old no-hair theorem the surface term has so far been ignored, but this plays a crucial role when the coupling function does not vanish at infinity and the scalar field admits a power expansion with respect to the inverse of the radial coordinate in that regime. We also clarify that the novel no-hair theorem is always evaded for regular black hole solutions without any restrictions as long as the regularity conditions are satisfied.