Dark energy beyond quintessence: Constraints from the swampland

Abstract

The string theory swampland proposes that there is no UV-completion for an effective field theory with an exact (metastable) de Sitter vacua, thereby ruling out standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology if the conjecture is taken seriously. The swampland criteria have also been shown to be in sharp tension with quintessence models under current and forthcoming observational bounds. As a logical next step, we introduce higher derivative self-interactions in the low-energy effective Lagrangian and show that one can satisfy observational constraints as well as the swampland criteria for some specific models. In particular, the cubic Galileon term, in the presence of an exponential potential, is examined to demonstrate that parts of the Horndeski parameter space survives the swampland and leads to viable cosmological histories.

15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, comments welcome; v2: minor changes. matches published version

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Cited by in corpus (19)

• Swampland Implications of GW170817-compatible Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity
• The trans-Planckian censorship conjecture from the swampland distance conjecture
• Dark Energy, the Swampland and the Equivalence Principle
• Cosmological implications of an interacting model of dark matter \& dark energy
• Inflationary Dynamics and Swampland Criteria for Modified Gauss-Bonnet Gravity Compatible with GW170817
• Production of Primordial Black Holes via Single Field Inflation and Observational Constraints
• The Swampland Conjectures and Slow-Roll Thawing Quintessence
• Rescaled Einstein-Hilbert Gravity: Inflation and the Swampland Criteria
• Swampland Criteria and Constraints on Inflation in a $f(R,T)$ Gravity Theory
• A model of dark matter dark energy interaction with some cosmic consequences
• 21 cm power spectrum in interacting cubic Galileon model
• Exponential quintessence with momentum coupling to dark matter
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Analytical $poly\Lambda$CDM dynamics
• The Role of Torsion in Trans-Planckian Physics
• Hořava-Lifshitz $F(\bar{R})$ theories and the Swampland
• Absence of antisymmetric tensor fields : Clue from f(R) model of gravity
• Cosmic acceleration from string induced Galileons
• On the Occurrence of Finite-time Singularities in Swampland-related Quintessence Dark Energy Models