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arXiv · 1705.09470

Darkness without dark matter and energy -- generalized unimodular gravity

A. O. Barvinsky·A. Yu. Kamenshchik
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Abstract

We suggest a Lorentz non-invariant generalization of the unimodular gravity theory, which is classically equivalent to general relativity with a locally inert (devoid of local degrees of freedom) perfect fluid having an equation of state with a constant parameter $w$. For the range of $w$ near $-1$ this dark fluid can play the role of dark energy, while for $w=0$ this dark dust admits spatial inhomogeneities and can be interpreted as dark matter. We discuss possible implications of this model in the cosmological initial conditions problem. In particular, this is the extension of known microcanonical density matrix predictions for the initial quantum state of the closed cosmology to the case of spatially open Universe, based on the imitation of the spatial curvature by the dark fluid density. We also briefly discuss quantization of this model necessarily involving the method of gauge systems with reducible constraints and the effect of this method on the treatment of recently suggested mechanism of vacuum energy sequestering.

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A. O. Barvinsky, A. Yu. Kamenshchik. 2017-05-26. Darkness without dark matter and energy -- generalized unimodular gravity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2017.09.045

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