Dark energy from coexistence of phases

Abstract

We suggest that the current acceleration of the universe may be explained by the vacuum energy of a hidden sector which is stuck in a state of equilibrium between phases. The phases are associated to a late-time first-order phase transition, where phase coexistence originates at a temperature $T_c\sim 10^{-3}eV$ and lasts until temperature falls below $T\sim 10^{-4}eV$. During phase coexistence, the energy density has an effective cosmological constant component with the observed magnitude. This scenario does not require supercooling and may arise naturally in realistic models.

arXiv comment11 pages. Contents significantly enlarged to make explanations clearer. Conclusions unchanged

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Velocity of electroweak bubble walls
• Hydrodynamics of phase transition fronts and the speed of sound in the plasma
• Detonations and deflagrations in cosmological phase transitions
• Supercooling and phase coexistence in cosmological phase transitions
• Spherical and non-spherical bubbles in cosmological phase transitions
• Gravitational waves from deflagration bubbles in first-order phase transitions
• Dark radiation as a signature of dark energy
• Bubble nucleation and growth in slow cosmological phase transitions
• Cosmological Condensation of Scalar Fields -- Making a dark energy