We consider the timelike version of Warped Anti-de Sitter space (WAdS), which corresponds to the three-dimensional section of the Gödel solution of four-dimensional cosmological Einstein equations. This geometry presents closed timelike curves (CTCs), which are inherited from its four-dimensional embedding. In three dimensions, this type of solutions can be supported without matter provided the graviton acquires mass. Here, among the different ways to consistently give mass to the graviton in three dimensions, we consider the parity-even model known as New Massive Gravity (NMG). In the bulk of timelike WAdS 3 space, we introduce defects that, from the three-dimensional point of view, represent spinning massive particle-like objects. For this type of sources, we investigate the definition of quasi-local gravitational energy as seen from infinity, far beyond the region where the CTCs appear. We also consider the covariant formalism applied to NMG to compute the mass and the angular momentum of spinning particle-like defects, and compare the result with the one obtained by means of the quasi-local stress-tensor. We apply these methods to special limits in which the WAdS 3 solutions coincide with locally AdS 3 and locally AdS 2 × R spaces. Finally, we make some comments about the asymptotic symmetry algebra of asymptotically WAdS 3 spaces in NMG.

In this paper, we consider a family of n-dimensional, higher-curvature theories of gravity whose action is given by a series of dimensionally extended conformal invariants. The latter correspond to higher-order generalizations of the Branson Q-curvature, which is an important notion of conformal geometry that has been recently considered in physics in different contexts. The family of theories we study here includes special cases of conformal invariant theories in even dimensions. We study different aspects of these theories and their relation to other highercurvature theories present in the literature.