We present a new action which reproduces the cosmological sector of general relativity in both the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker and Bianchi models. This action makes no reference to the scale factor and is of a frictional type first examined by Herglotz. We demonstrate that the extremization of this action reproduces the usual dynamics of physical observables, and the symplectification of this action is the Einstein-Hilbert action for cosmological models. We end by discussing some of the increased explanatory power produced by considering the reduced physical ontology resulting from eliminating scale.

• Received 21 October 2020
• Accepted 22 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.043524