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Lorentz Violation in Emergent Gravity and Its Cosmological Consequences

Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom

^*Contact author: magueijo@ic.ac.uk

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 231501 – Published 8 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tvmx-qk3k

Abstract

We show that general relativity and other geometrical theories can be viewed as a degenerate Otto cycle with only heat-exchange legs in emergent gravity. Including work-producing legs yields controlled violations of local Lorentz invariance and energy-momentum conservation, which produce late-time cosmological acceleration. Implications for the cosmological constant problem, structure formation, and local observations are discussed.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 231501– Published 8 June, 2026

Vol. 136, Iss. 23 — 12 June 2026

Received 27 November 2025
Accepted 14 May 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tvmx-qk3k

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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Lorentz Violation in Emergent Gravity and Its Cosmological Consequences

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