English

Relativistic Fractons and their Dust

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-10-21 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We define a relativistic version of the global symmetries responsible for the restricted mobility of fracton quasiparticles. The theories have a symmetry current that is proportional to a vector field that spontaneously breaks Lorentz boost symmetry. We argue that the existence of a pressureless dust in the early universe could be a consequence of this symmetry. We provide an example of a fractonic scalar field with a quartic self-interaction evolving on a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background and show that the interaction gives rise to a separately conserved fluid with equation of state w=1w=1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.14496,
  title  = {Relativistic Fractons and their Dust},
  author = {Qiuyue Liang and Tom Melia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.14496},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

5 pages v2 corrected error in perturbation analysis and added discussion on stability