GENERAL COORDINATE TRANSFORMATIONS AS THE ORIGINS OF DARK ENERGY

Abstract

In this note we demonstrate that the algebra associated with coordinate transformations might contain the origins of a scalar field that can behave as an inflaton and/or a source for dark energy. We will call this particular scalar field the diffeomorphism scalar field. In one dimension, the algebra of coordinate transformations is the Virasoro algebra while the algebra of gauge transformations is the Kac–Moody algebra. An interesting representation of these algebras corresponds to certain field theories that have meaning in any dimension. In particular, the so-called Kac–Moody sector corresponds to Yang–Mills theories and the Virasoro sector corresponds to the diffeomorphism field theory that contains the scalar field and a rank-two symmetric, traceless tensor. We will focus on the contributions of the diffeomorphism scalar field to cosmology. We show that this scalar field can, qualitatively, act as a phantom dark energy, an inflaton, a dark matter source, and the cosmological constant Λ.