Effective field theory from modified gravity with massive modes

Massive gravitational modes in effective field theories can be recovered by extending General Relativity and taking into account generic functions of the curvature invariants, not necessarily linear in the Ricci scalar R. In particular, adopting the minimal extension of f(R) gravity, an effective field theory with massive modes is straightforwardly recovered. This approach allows to evade shortcomings like ghosts and discontinuities if a suitable choice of expansion parameters is performed.