Light scalar fields can naturally couple disformally to Standard Model fields without giving rise to the unacceptably large fifth forces usually associated with light scalars. We show that these scalar fields can still be studied and constrained through their interaction with photons, and focus particularly on changes to the Cosmic Microwave Background spectral distortions and violations of the distance duality relation. We then specialise our constraints to scalars which could play the role of axionic quintessence.
Invertible disformal transformations are a useful tool to investigate ghost-free scalar-tensor theories. By performing a higher-derivative generalization of the invertible disformal transformation on Horndeski theories, we construct a novel class of ghost-free scalar-tensor theories, which we dub generalized disformal Horndeski theories. Specifically, these theories lie beyond the quadratic/cubic DHOST class. We explore cosmological perturbations to identify a subclass where gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light and clarify the conditions for the absence of ghost/gradient instabi…
We study the frame dependence/independence of cosmological observables under disformal transformations, extending the previous results regarding conformal transformations, and provide the correspondence between Jordan-frame and Einstein-frame variables. We consider quantities such as the gravitational constant in the Newtonian limit, redshift, luminosity and angular diameter distances, as well as the distance-duality relation. Also, the Boltzmann equation, the observed specific intensity, and the adiabaticity condition are discussed. Since the electromagnetic action changes under disformal tra…
Primordial cosmological perturbations are the seeds that were cultivated by inflation and the succeeding dynamical processes, eventually leading to the current Universe. In this work, we investigate the behavior of the gauge-invariant scalar and tensor perturbations under the general extended disformal transformation, namely, $g_{μν} \rightarrow A(X,Y,Z)g_{μν} + Φ_μΦ_ν$, where $X \equiv -\tfrac{1}{2}ϕ^{;μ}ϕ_{;μ}, Y \equiv ϕ^{;μ}X_{;μ}, Z \equiv X^{;μ}X_{;μ} $ and $Φ_μ\equiv Cϕ_{;μ} + DX_{;μ}$, with $C$ and $D$ being a general functional of $(ϕ,X,Y,Z)$. We find that the tensor perturbation is i…
We study a quintessence model for which the scalar field is disformally coupled to dark matter. The background mimics the LCDM cosmological evolution and the quintessence potential is not specified. A disformal effect due to the quintessential mass is seen in the growth rate of the cosmological structure on large scales. The disformal parameter renders no appreciable effect on the evolution of the total matter perturbation. An analysis of the conformal parameter and quintessential mass is investigated using the Redshift Space Distortion data to find the best-fit values that might explain the w…
The coupled quintessence model with disformal couplings is treated here to mimic the $Λ$CDM background. Using this approach, the quintessence potential does not have to be specified. The model considers a generic fluid coupled to the quintessence, which is specified to be either dark matter or a relativistic fluid. The background consists of a cosmological constant and another uncoupled generic fluid, to cater for three studied scenarios. The cosmological dynamics is investigated for the coupled quintessence model, whose disformal couplings depend on the equation of state of both generic fluid…
In the context of scalar-tensor theories, the inclusion of new degrees of freedom coupled non-minimally to the gravitational sector might produce some appealing effects on the cosmic expansion history. We investigate this premise by including a canonical SU(2) Yang- Mills field to the total energy budget of the universe coupled to the standard quintessential field by a disformal transformation. From the dynamical system analysis, we study three cases of cosmological interest that span most of the physical phase space of the model: the uncoupled limit, the isotropic, and the Abelian cases. New …
We consider a disformal coupling between Standard Model matter and a cubic Galileon scalar sector, assumed to be a relict of some other physics that solves the cosmological constant problem rather than a solution in its own right. This allows the energy density carried by the Galileon scalar to be sufficiently small that it evades stringent constraints from the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, which otherwise rules out the cubic Galileon theory. Although the model with disformal coupling does not exhibit screening, we show there is a `screening-like' phenomenon in which the energy density carrie…
We study the cosmological predictions of the dark D-brane model, in which dark matter resides on a D-brane moving in a higher-dimensional space. By construction, dark matter interacts only gravitationally with the standard model sector in this framework. The dark energy scalar field is associated with the position of the D-brane, and its dynamics is encoded in a Dirac-Born-Infeld action. On the other hand, dark matter is identified with matter on the D-brane, that naturally couples to dark energy \textit{via} a disformal coupling. We analyse the numerical evolution of the cosmological backgrou…
Non-standard interactions (NSI) between neutrinos and electrons can significantly modify the decoupling of neutrinos from the plasma. These interactions have two effects on the overall picture: (i) they alter neutrino oscillations though matter effects and (ii) they modify the scattering and annihilation processes involving neutrinos and electrons and positrons. We study the role of non-universal and flavour-changing NSI in the decoupling and how they impact the determination of the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{eff}$. We examine the degeneracies between NSI parameters and we compare the …
