Quartet-metric general relativity: scalar graviton, dark matter and dark energy

TL;DR

This paper proposes an extended scalar-vector-tensor gravity theory using a scalar quartet, aiming to unify dark matter and dark energy, and explores its weak-field limit with implications for cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a covariant scalar quartet extension of General Relativity that unifies dark matter and dark energy within a single framework.

Findings

The theory includes a massless tensor graviton and a massive scalar graviton as dark matter candidates.

Residual gauge invariance in the linearized limit allows consistent particle interpretation.

Parameter flexibility enables modeling phenomena across different scales.

Abstract

General Relativity extended through a dynamical scalar quartet is proposed as a theory of the scalar-vector-tensor gravity, generically describing the unified gravitational dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE). The implementation in the weak-field limit of the Higgs mechanism for the gravity, with a redefinition of metric field, is exposed in a generally covariant form. Under a natural restriction on parameters, the redefined theory possesses in the linearized approximation by a residual transverse-diffeomorphism invariance, and consistently comprises the massless tensor graviton and a massive scalar one as a DM particle. A number of the adjustable parameters in the full nonlinear theory and a partial decoupling of the latter from its weak-field limit noticeably extend the perspectives for the unified description of the gravity DM and DE in the various phenomena at the different scales.