Falsifying Field-based Dark Energy Models

Abstract

We survey the application of specific tools to distinguish amongst the wide variety of dark energy models that are nowadays under investigation. The first class of tools is more mathematical in character: the application of the theory of dynamical systems to select the better behaved models, with appropriate attractors in the past and future. The second class of tools is rather physical: the use of astrophysical observations to crack the degeneracy of classes of dark energy models. In this last case the observations related with structure formation are emphasized both in the linear and non-linear regimes. We exemplify several studies based on our research, such as quintom and quinstant dark energy ones. Quintom dark energy paradigm is a hybrid construction of quintessence and phantom fields, which does not suffer from fine-tuning problems associated to phantom field and additionally it preserves the scaling behavior of quintessence. Quintom dark energy is motivated on theoretical grounds as an explanation for the crossing of the phantom divide, i.e. the smooth crossing of the dark energy state equation parameter below the value -1. On the other hand, quinstant dark energy is considered to be formed by quintessence and a negative cosmological constant, the inclusion of this later component allows for a viable mechanism to halt acceleration. We comment that the quinstant dark energy scenario gives good predictions for structure formation in the linear regime, but fails to do that in the non-linear one, for redshifts larger than one. We comment that there might still be some degree of arbitrariness in the selection of the best dark energy models.

64 pages, 12 figures, invited review for Nova Science Publishers, as a chapter of the book Dark Energy: Theories, Developments and Implications

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Phase-Space analysis of Teleparallel Dark Energy
• Hubble expansion and structure formation in the "running FLRW model" of the cosmic evolution
• The past and future dynamics of quintom dark energy models
• Kantowski-Sachs Einstein-æther perfect fluid models
• Phase space analysis of quintessence fields trapped in a Randall-Sundrum braneworld: a refined study
• Phase space analysis of quintessence fields trapped in a Randall-Sundrum Braneworld: anisotropic Bianchi I brane with a Positive Dark Radiation term
• Phase-space of flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models with both a scalar field coupled to matter and radiation
• Averaging Generalized Scalar Field Cosmologies I: Locally Rotationally Symmetric Bianchi III and open Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker models
• Averaging Generalized Scalar Field Cosmologies II: Locally Rotationally Symmetric Bianchi I and flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker models
• Constraining Models of Dark Energy