It is shown that the Cotton tensor can describe the effects of gravity beyond general relativity. Any solution of the Einstein equations with or without the cosmological constant satisfies the field equations described by the Cotton tensor. It implies that the cosmological constant is an integration constant. A vacuum of a theory is represented by the vanishing of the Cotton tensor, rather than the vanishing of the Ricci tensor. An exact Schwarzschild-like solution for a static and spherically symmetric source is discovered. Although the field equations involve the third order of derivative, it is found that they reduce to the second-order differential equations due to a variational principle.

• Received 26 March 2021
• Accepted 14 May 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.L121502