Analyzing conserved currents in F(R) theory of gravity

Abstract

[Formula: see text] theory of gravity is claimed to admit a host of conserved currents under the imposition of Noether symmetry following various techniques. However, for a constrained system such as gravity, Noether symmetry is not on-shell. As a result, the symmetries do not necessarily satisfy the field equations in general, constraints in particular, unless the generator is modified to incorporate the constraints. In this paper, we apply the first theorem of Poisson to unveil the fact that not all the conserved currents appearing in the literature for [Formula: see text] theory of gravity satisfy the field equations. We also provide a list of available forms of [Formula: see text] along with associated conserved currents and construct a generalized action, which might address the cosmic puzzle, elegantly.