Axionic cosmological constant

Abstract

We propose a novel, higher-derivative, Weyl-invariant and generally-covariant theory for the cosmological constant. This theory is a mimetic construction with gauge fields playing the role of dynamical variables. These fields compose the Chern-Simons current instead of the vector field used in the Henneaux and Teitelboim formulation of the unimodular gravity. The equations of motion exactly reproduce the traceless Einstein equations. We demonstrate that, reformulated in Weyl-invariant variables, this novel theory reduces to standard general relativity with the cosmological constant as a Lagrange multiplier. This Lagrange multiplier has an axion-like coupling.

15 pages+refs, no figures, comments welcome!

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Unimodular Gauge in Perturbative Gravity and Supergravity
• Non-minimal Tinges of Unimodular Gravity
• Disforming to Conformal Symmetry
• Quantum cosmology of a dynamical Lambda
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