On the Canonical Formalism for a Higher-Curvature Gravity
  Following the method of Buchbinder and Lyahovich, we carry out a canonical formalism for a higher-curvature gravity in which the Lagrangian density ${\cal L}$ is given in terms of a function of the salar curvature $R$ as ${\cal L}=\sqrt{-\det g_{\mu\nu}}f(R)$. The local Hamiltonian is obtained by a canonical transformation which interchanges a pair of the generalized coordinate and its canonical momentum coming from the higher derivative of the metric. 
Yasuo Ezawa, Masahiko Kiminami, Masahiro Kajihara(Ehine University),   Jiro Soda(Kyoto University) and Tadasi Yano(Ehime Uni...