FLRW-Compatible Tensors and Perfect-Fluid Universality in Modified Gravity

Abstract: We study FLRW-compatible tensor fields on Friedmann--Lemaître--Robertson--Walker spacetimes in $(D+1)$ dimensions equipped with Levi-Civita connection. We prove that any covariant rank-$N$ tensor field invariant under the spatial homogeneity and isotropy group, with $D>N$, admits a finite decomposition into monomials constructed from the metric tensor $g_{μν}$ and the unit timelike vector $u_μ$, with scalar coefficients depending only on cosmic time. As a direct consequence, any rank-two correction term appearing in an Einstein-like rearrangement of the FLRW background field equations has the effective perfect-fluid form for $D>2$. Thus, the result provides an arbitrary-rank tensorial classification underlying the perfect-fluid structure of modified gravity equations on FLRW backgrounds, complementing existing rank-two universality results. Applications to generalized Friedmann equations and to the geodesic deviation equation in modified gravity are also discussed.