paper

Constraining Spatial Curvature with Priors from Swampland Conjectures

arXiv:2605.22362 · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2026/09/016

Abstract

We study a string-motivated theoretical prior on the quintessential dark energy model with exponential potential, \( V(ϕ) = V_0 e^{-λϕ} \), allowing for non-zero spatial curvature. First, we formulate the corresponding dynamical system and investigate its cosmological evolution numerically, illustrating the phase-space behaviour and the influence of curvature on the background dynamics. In open universes (\( Ω_k > 0 \)), it has been suggested that a curvature-related fixed point may support accelerated expansion even for relatively steep potentials compatible with swampland considerations. Next, we explicitly impose swampland-motivated priors on the slope parameter , restricting it to values consistent with the de Sitter conjecture that excludes the (curved) CDM limit. Furthermore, we restrict our considerations to the range of field excursion that is consistent with the swampland distance conjecture. Our primary interest is the possibility that such theoretically-motivated priors may shift values of cosmological parameters inferred by observational data, compared with the standard analysis based on theory-agnostic priors such as a sufficiently wide flat prior. We examine this possibility using a combination of Planck CMB data, DESI BAO measurements, and recent Type Ia supernova samples, performing a Bayesian inference of the model parameters. Our analysis indicates that the swampland-motivated prior mildly shifts the values of .

25 pages and 3 figures. The article has been accepted for publication in JCAP

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