Modified gravity theories have received increased attention lately due to combined motivation coming from high-energy physics, cosmology, and astrophysics. Among numerous alternatives to Einstein's theory of gravity, theories that include higher-order curvature invariants, and specifically the particular class of f(R) theories, have a long history. In the last five years there has been a new stimulus for their study, leading to a number of interesting results. Here f(R) theories of gravity are reviewed in an attempt to comprehensively present their most important aspects and cover the largest possible portion of the relevant literature. All known formalisms are presented\char22{}metric, Palatini, and metric affine\char22{}and the following topics are discussed: motivation; actions, field equations, and theoretical aspects; equivalence with other theories; cosmological aspects and constraints; viability criteria; and astrophysical applications.

Hawking has proven that black holes which are stationary as the end point of gravitational collapse in Brans-Dicke theory (without a potential) are no different than in general relativity. We extend this proof to the much more general class of scalar-tensor and f(R) gravity theories, without assuming any symmetries apart from stationarity.

The nonminimal coupling (NMC) of the scalar field to the Ricci curvature is unavoidable in many cosmological scenarios. Inflation and quintessence models based on nonminimally coupled scalar fields are studied, with particular attention to the balance between the scalar potential and the NMC term $\xi R{\phi }^2/2\mathrm{}$ in the action. NMC makes acceleration of the universe harder to achieve for the usual potentials, but it is beneficial in obtaining cosmic acceleration with unusual potentials. The slow-roll approximation with NMC, conformal transformation techniques, and other aspects of the physics of NMC are clarified.