Speeding up the universe using dust with pressure

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified cosmological model where matter with pressure mimics dark energy, using scalar fields and symmetry breaking, leading to a negative pressure that aligns with observations and predicts dark matter candidates in the TeV range.

Contribution

It introduces a scalar field Lagrangian with a Lagrange multiplier and symmetry breaking to model pressure in matter, addressing the cosmological constant problem and the coincidence problem.

Findings

Negative pressure arises naturally from the model without dark energy.

Numerical bounds match current cosmological observations.

Predicted dark matter particle masses are in the 0.5-1.7 TeV range.

Abstract

We revise the cosmological standard model presuming that matter, i.e. baryons and cold dark matter, exhibits a non-vanishing pressure mimicking the cosmological constant effects. In particular, we propose a scalar field Lagrangian $\mathcal L_1$ for matter with the introduction of a Lagrange multiplier as constraint. We also add a symmetry breaking effective potential accounting for the classical cosmological constant problem, by adding a second Lagrangian $\mathcal{L}_2$. Investigating the Noether current due to the shift symmetry on the scalar field, $\varphi\rightarrow\varphi+c^0$, we show that $\mathcal{L}_1$ turns out to be independent from the scalar field $\varphi$. Further we find that a positive Helmotz free-energy naturally leads to a negative pressure without introducing by hand any dark energy term. To face out the fine-tuning problem, we investigate two phases: before and after transition due to the symmetry breaking. We propose that during transition dark matter cancels out the quantum field vacuum energy effects. This process leads to a negative and constant pressure whose magnitude is determined by baryons only. The numerical bounds over the pressure and matter densities are in agreement with current observations, alleviating the coincidence problem. Finally assuming a thermal equilibrium between the bath and our effective fluid, we estimate the mass of the dark matter candidate. Our numerical outcomes seem to be compatible with recent predictions on WIMP masses, for fixed spin and temperature. In particular, we predict possible candidates whose masses span in the range $0.5-1.7$ TeV.