The geometric arena here is a smooth manifold of dimension n equipped with a Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian metric and an affine connection. Field theories following from a variational principle are considered on this basis. In this context, all invariants which are quadratic in the curvature are determined. The work derives several manifestly covariant formulas for the Euler-Lagrange derivatives or the field equations. Some of these field theories can be interpreted as gravitational theories alternatively to Einstein´s general relativity theory. The work also touches the difficult problem to define and to calculate energy and momentum of a gravitational field.
Open Access
