We construct the most general, to cubic order in curvature, theory of gravity whose (most general) static spherically symmetric vacuum solutions are fully described by a single field equation. The theory possess the following remarkable properties: i) it has a well-defined Einstein gravity limit ii) it admits 'Schwarzschild-like' solutions characterized by a single metric function iii) on maximally symmetric backgrounds it propagates the same degrees of freedom as Einstein's gravity iv) Lovelock and quasi-topological gravities, as well as the recently developed Einsteinian cubic gravity ArXiv:1607.06463 in four dimensions, are recovered as special cases. We perform a brief analysis of asymptotically flat black holes in this theory and study their thermodynamics.

We comment on the recently introduced Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimensions. We argue that it does not make sense to consider this theory to be defined by a set of D → 4 solutions of the higher-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet gravity. We show that a well-defined D → 4 limit of Gauss-Bonnet Gravity is obtained generalizing a method employed by Mann and Ross to obtain a limit of the Einstein gravity in D = 2 dimensions. This is a scalar-tensor theory of the Horndeski type obtained by dimensional reduction methods. By considering simple spacetimes beyond spherical symmetry (Taub-NUT spaces) we show that the naive limit of the higher-dimensional theory to D = 4 is not well defined and contrast the resultant metrics with the actual solutions of the new theory.

Using numerical and perturbative methods, we construct the first examples of black hole solutions in Einsteinian cubic gravity and study their thermodynamics. Focusing first on four dimensional solutions, we show that these black holes have a novel equation of state in which the pressure is a quadratic function of the temperature. Despite this, they undergo a first order phase transition with associated van der Waals behaviour. We then construct perturbative solutions for general D ≥ 5 and study the properties of these solutions for D = 5 and D = 6 in particular. We note that for D > 4 the solutions are described by two independent metric functions. We find novel examples of superentropic behaviour over a large portion of the parameter space. We analyse the specific heat, determining that the black holes are thermodynamically stable over large regions of parameter space.

We construct a new class of rotating anti-de Sitter (AdS) black hole solutions with noncompact event horizons of finite area in any dimension and study their thermodynamics. In four dimensions these black holes are solutions to gauged supergravity. We find that their entropy exceeds the maximum implied from the conjectured reverse isoperimetric inequality, which states that for a given thermodynamic volume, the black hole entropy is maximized for Schwarzschild-AdS space. We use this result to suggest more stringent conditions under which this conjecture may hold.

By employing the new ultraspinning limit we construct novel classes of black holes with non-compact event horizons and finite horizon area and study their thermodynamics. Our ultraspinning limit can be understood as a simple generating technique that consists of three steps: i) transforming the known rotating AdS black hole solution to a special coordinate system that rotates (in a given 2-plane) at infinity ii) boosting this rotation to the speed of light iii) compactifying the corresponding azimuthal direction. In so doing we qualitatively change the structure of the spacetime since it is no longer possible to return to a frame that does not rotate at infinity. The obtained black holes have non-compact horizons with topology of a sphere with two punctures. The entropy of some of these exceeds the maximal bound implied by the reverse isoperimetric inequality, such black holes are super-entropic.