A Unified Model of Phantom Energy and Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper presents a gauge theory based on graded Lie algebras that naturally models both phantom energy causing accelerated expansion and a form of dark matter, unifying these phenomena in a single framework.

Contribution

It introduces a novel gauge theory approach using graded Lie algebras to naturally generate phantom energy and dark matter without ad hoc assumptions.

Findings

The model includes scalar fields with negative kinetic energy.

It contains anti-commuting vector fields acting as dark matter.

Provides a unified theoretical framework for dark energy and dark matter.

Abstract

To explain the acceleration of the cosmological expansion researchers have considered an unusual form of mass-energy generically called dark energy. Dark energy has a ratio of pressure over mass density which obeys $w=p/\rho <-1/3$. This form of mass-energy leads to accelerated expansion. An extreme form of dark energy, called phantom energy, has been proposed which has $w=p/\rho <-1$. This possibility is favored by the observational data. The simplest model for phantom energy involves the introduction of a scalar field with a negative kinetic energy term. Here we show that theories based on graded Lie algebras naturally have such a negative kinetic energy and thus give a model for phantom energy in a less ad hoc manner. We find that the model also contains ordinary scalar fields and anti-commuting (Grassmann) vector fields which act as a form of two component dark matter. Thus from a gauge theory based on a graded algebra we naturally obtained both phantom energy and dark matter.