We explicitly compute the tree-level on-shell four-graviton amplitudes in four, five and six dimensions for local and weakly nonlocal gravitational theories that are quadratic in both, the Ricci and scalar curvature with form factors of the d'Alembertian operator inserted between. More specifically we are interested in renormalizable, superrenormalizable or finite theories. The scattering amplitudes for these theories turn out to be the same as the ones of Einstein gravity regardless of the explicit form of the form factors. As a special case the four-graviton scattering amplitudes in Weyl conformal gravity are identically zero. Using a field redefinition, we prove that the outcome is correct for any number of external gravitons (on-shell n−point functions) and in any dimension for a large class of theories. However, when an operator quadratic in the Riemann tensor is added in any dimension (with the exception of the Gauss-Bonnet term in four dimensions) the result is completely altered, and the scattering amplitudes depend on all the form factors introduced in the action.

Starting from the Oppenheimer-Snyder model, we know how in classical general relativity the gravitational collapse of matter forms a black hole with a central spacetime singularity. It is widely believed that the singularity must be removed by quantum-gravity effects. Some static quantum-inspired singularity-free black hole solutions have been proposed in the literature, but when one considers simple examples of gravitational collapse the classical singularity is replaced by a bounce, after which the collapsing matter expands for ever. We may expect three possible explanations: (i) the static regular black hole solutions are not physical, in the sense that they cannot be realized in Nature, (ii) the final product of the collapse is not unique, but it depends on the initial conditions, or (iii) boundary effects play an important role and our simple models miss important physics. In the latter case, after proper adjustment, the bouncing solution would approach the static one. We argue that the "correct answer" may be related to the appearance of a ghost state in de Sitter spacetimes with super Planckian mass. Our black holes have indeed a de Sitter core and the ghost would make these configurations unstable. Therefore we believe that these black hole static solutions represent the transient phase of a gravitational collapse but never survive as asymptotic states.

We compute the area term contribution to black holes' entanglement entropy (using the conical technique) for a class of local or weakly non-local super-renormalizable gravitational theories coupled to matter. For the first time, we explicitly prove that all the beta functions in the proposed theory, except for the cosmological constant, are identically zero in cut-off regularization scheme and not only in dimensional regularization scheme. In particular, we show that there is no divergence quadratic in cut-off and hence there is no contribution to the beta function of the Newton constant. As a consequence of this result, we argue that in these theories of gravity conical entropy is a sensible definition of physical entropy, in particular, it is positive-definite and gauge independent. On top of this the conical entropy, being expressed only in terms of the classical Newton constant, turns out to be finite and naturally coincides with Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Finally, we propose a theory in which the renormalization of the Newton constant is entirely due to the Standard Model matter, arguing that such a contribution does not give the usual interpretational problems of conical entropy discussed in the literature.