Abstract

Although equivalent to general relativity, teleparallel gravity (TG) is conceptually speaking a completely different theory. In this theory, the gravitational field is described by torsion, not by curvature. By working in this context, a new model is proposed in which the four-derivative of a canonical scalar field representing dark energy is nonminimally coupled to the "vector torsion". This type of coupling is motivated by the fact that a scalar field couples to torsion through its four-derivative, which is consistent with local spacetime kinematics regulated by the de Sitter group SO(1, 4). It is found that the current state of accelerated expansion of the universe corresponds to a late-time attractor that can be (i) a dark energy-dominated de Sitter solution (omega(phi) = -1), (ii) a quintessence-type solution with omega(phi) = -1, or (iii) a phantom-type omega(phi) -1 dark energy.