  For vacuum Maxwell theory in four dimensions, a supplementary condition
exists (due to Eastwood and Singer) which is invariant under conformal
rescalings of the metric, in agreement with the conformal symmetry of the
Maxwell equations. Thus, starting from the de Donder gauge, which is not
conformally invariant but is the gravitational counterpart of the Lorenz gauge,
one can consider, led by formal analogy, a new family of gauges in general
relativity, which involve fifth-order covariant derivatives of metric
perturbations. The admissibility of such gauges in the classical theory is
first proven in the cases of linearized theory about flat Euclidean space or
flat Minkowski space-time. In the former, the general solution of the equation
for the fulfillment of the gauge condition after infinitesimal diffeomorphisms
involves a 3-harmonic 1-form and an inverse Fourier transform. In the latter,
one needs instead the kernel of powers of the wave operator, and a contour
integral. The analysis is also used to put restrictions on the dimensionless
parameter occurring in the DeWitt supermetric, while the proof of admissibility
is generalized to a suitable class of curved Riemannian backgrounds.
Eventually, a non-local construction is obtained of the tensor field which
makes it possible to achieve conformal invariance of the above gauges.
