QUANTUM COSMOLOGY AND HIGHER-ORDER LAGRANGIAN THEORIES

In this paper the quantum cosmological consequences of introducing a t erm cubic in the Ricci curvature scalar R into the Einstein-Hilbert ac tion are investigated. It is argued that this term represents a more g eneric perturbation to the action than the quadratic correction usuall y considered. A qualitative argument suggests that there exists a regi on of parameter space in which neither the tunnelling nor the no-bound ary boundary conditions predict an epoch of inflation that can solve t he horizon and flatness problems of the standard big bang model. This is in contrast to the R(2)-theory.