Examining Quintessence Models with DESI Data

Abstract

We examine data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration which has implications for the nature of dark energy. We consider classes of models that manifestly obey the null energy condition, with a focus on quintessence models. We find that hilltop potentials and exponential potentials provide modest improvement compared to a cosmological constant, but the statistical evidence is only marginal at this stage. We correct some analyses in the existing literature which attempted to compare some quintessence models to the data, giving an overly positive result.

9 pages in double column format. 5 figures. 2 tables. V2: Updated statistics, added references. Accepted for publication in JCAP

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• Robust evidence for dynamical dark energy in light of DESI DR2 and joint ACT, SPT, and Planck data
• Metastability in Emergent Dark Energy: A New Framework Confronting Cosmological Observations
• Joint Constraints on Neutrinos and Dynamical Dark Energy in Minimally Modified Gravity
• Updated Cosmological Constraints from 2D BAO Measurements: A New Compilation and Comparison with DESI DR2
• Exponential quintessence with momentum coupling to dark matter
• Realizing the phantom-divide crossing with vector and scalar fields
• Dark Acoustic Oscillations as an Early-Universe Explanation of the DESI Anomaly
• KiDS-Legacy: Constraining dark energy, neutrino mass, and curvature
• Accelerated expansion of the universe purely driven by scalar field fluctuations
• Exponential Quintessence Model: Analytical Quantification of the Fine-Tuning Problem in Dark Energy
• Breaking Free from the Swampland of Impossible Universes through the DESI Portal