Massive stealth scalar fields from field redefinition method

TL;DR

This paper introduces a deformation method for scalar field actions coupled to gravity, creating models with massive stealth fields that have zero energy-momentum tensor, and explores how this affects field configurations and their properties.

Contribution

It presents a novel uni-parametric deformation technique applicable to scalar fields with gravity, enabling the generation of massive stealth configurations and analyzing their properties.

Findings

Deformation method produces new models with stealth scalar fields.

Stealth configurations coexist with massive fields in deformed models.

Deformation parameter influences the energy-momentum tensor and mass of stealth fields.

Abstract

We propose an uni-parametric deformation method of action principles of scalar fields coupled to gravity which generates new models with massive stealth field configurations, i.e. with vanishing energy-momentum tensor. The method applies to a wide class of models and we provide three examples. In particular we observe that in the case of the standard massive scalar action principle, the respective deformed action contains the stealth configurations and it preserves the massive ones of the undeformed model. We also observe that, in this latter example, the effect of the energy-momentum tensor of the massive (non-stealth) field can be amplified or damped by the deformation parameter, alternatively the mass of the stealth field.