Disforming to Conformal Symmetry

TL;DR

This paper investigates how disformal transformations in gravity theories introduce new degrees of freedom, similar to mimetic dark matter, and explores their properties and broader applicability.

Contribution

It reveals that disformal transformations often generate mimetic dark matter-like degrees of freedom and extends understanding of their occurrence across various transformations.

Findings

Disformal transformations can produce mimetic dark matter degrees of freedom.

The phenomenon occurs in a wider class of transformations than previously recognized.

The resulting degrees of freedom have a Weyl-invariant formulation.

Abstract

We analyse the dynamical properties of disformally transformed theories of gravity. We show that disformal transformation typically introduces novel degrees of freedom, equivalent to the mimetic dark matter, which possesses a Weyl-invariant formulation. We demonstrate that this phenomenon occurs in a wider variety of disformal transformations than previously thought.