Renormalization and unitarity in higher derivative and nonlocal gravity theories

We review and discuss higher derivative and nonlocal theories of quantum gravity focusing on their UV and unitarity properties. We first consider the general fourth-order gravitational action, then actions containing derivatives up to any given fixed order, and discuss their UV divergences, fixed points and concomitant unitarity issues. This leads to a more general discussion of "asymptotic safety" and unitarity, which motivates the introduction of nonlocal theories containing derivatives to all orders arising from the expansion of entire functions. For such theories good UV behavior is visible at any finite truncation, but unitarity emerges only when derivatives to all orders are included.