We revise the cosmological standard model presuming that matter, i.e., baryons and cold dark matter, exhibits a nonvanishing pressure mimicking the cosmological constant effects. In particular, we propose a scalar field Lagrangian ${\mathcal{L}}_1$ for matter with the introduction of a Lagrange multiplier as constraint. We also add a symmetry breaking effective potential accounting for the classical cosmological constant problem, by adding a second Lagrangian ${\mathcal{L}}_2$. Investigating the Noether current due to the shift symmetry on the scalar field, $\phi \to \phi +c^0$, we show that ${\mathcal{L}}_1$ turns out to be independent from the scalar field $\phi$. Further we find that a positive Helmotz free-energy naturally leads to a negative pressure without introducing by hand any dark energy term. To face out the fine-tuning problem, we investigate two phases: before and after transition due to the symmetry breaking. We propose that during transition dark matter cancels out the quantum field vacuum energy effects. This process leads to a negative and constant pressure whose magnitude is determined by baryons only. The numerical bounds over the pressure and matter densities are in agreement with current observations, alleviating the coincidence problem. Finally assuming a thermal equilibrium between the bath and our effective fluid, we estimate the mass of the dark matter candidate. Our numerical outcomes seem to be compatible with recent predictions on WIMP masses, for fixed spin and temperature. In particular, we predict possible candidates whose masses span in the range 0.5–1.7 TeV.

• Received 8 July 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.103520