Extending the symmetry of the massless Klein–Gordon equation under the general disformal transformation

Abstract

The Klein–Gordon equation, one of the most fundamental equations in field theory, is known to be not invariant under conformal transformation. However, its massless limit exhibits symmetry under Bekenstein’s disformal transformation, subject to some conditions on the disformal part of the metric variation. In this study, we explore the symmetry of the Klein–Gordon equation under the general disformal transformation encompassing that of Bekenstein and a hierarchy of “sub-generalizations” explored in the literature (within the context of inflationary cosmology and scalar–tensor theories). We find that the symmetry in the massless limit can be extended under this generalization provided that the disformal factors take a special form in relation to the conformal factor. Upon settling the effective extension of symmetry, we investigate the invertibility of the general disformal transformation to avoid propagating nonphysical degrees of freedom upon changing the metric. We derive the inverse transformation and the accompanying restrictions that make this inverse possible.