Deep connection between f(R) gravity and the interacting dark sector model

Abstract

We examine the conformal equivalence between the $f(R)$ gravity and the interacting dark sector model. We review the well-known result that the conformal transformation physically corresponds to the mass dilation which marks the strength of interaction between dark sectors. Instead of modeling f(R) gravity in the Jordan frame, we construct the $f(R)$ gravity in terms of mass dilation function in the Einstein frame. We find that the condition to keep $f(R)$ gravity consistent with CMB observations ensures the energy flow from dark energy to dark matter in the corresponding interacting model, which meets the requirement to alleviate the coincidence problem in the Einstein framework.