arXiv · 1505.00174
Cosmological disformal invariance
Abstract
The invariance of physical observables under disformal transformations is considered. It is known that conformal transformations leave physical observables invariant. However, whether it is true for disformal transformations is still an open question. In this paper, it is shown that a pure disformal transformation without any conformal factor is equivalent to rescaling the time coordinate. Since this rescaling applies equally to all the physical quantities, physics must be invariant under a disformal transformation, that is, neither causal structure, propagation speed nor any other property of the fields are affected by a disformal transformation itself. This fact is presented at the action level for gravitational and matter fields and it is illustrated with some examples of observable quantities. We also find the physical invariance for cosmological perturbations at linear and high orders in perturbation, extending previous studies. Finally, a comparison with Horndeski and beyond Horndeski theories under a disformal transformation is made.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Guillem Domènech, Atsushi Naruko, Misao Sasaki. 2016-06-17. Cosmological disformal invariance. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2015%2F10%2F067
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.