Related papers: Quintessence as k-essence
We discuss the possibility that "quintessential effects", recently displayed by large scale observations, may be consistently described in the context of the low-energy string effective action, and we suggest a possible approach to the…
The origin of the accelerated expansion of the universe is still unclear and new physics is needed on cosmological scales. We propose and test a novel interpretation of dark energy as originated by an elastic strain due to a cosmic defect…
Quintessence, a time-varying energy component that may account for the accelerated expansion of the universe, can be characterized by its equation of state and sound speed. In this paper, we show that if the quintessence density is at least…
We propose a model to describe the late-time cosmic acceleration in the context of the constant-roll model. By considering a coupling between massive neutrinos and the quintessence, the onset of evolution of the quintessence is related to…
In this paper, we investigate a quintessence field with an exponential potential motivated by the suggestion of time-varying dark energy from the DESI galaxy survey. Assuming a kination epoch in the early Universe, we analytically derive…
I briefly review the cosmological constant problem and the issue of dark energy (or quintessence). Within the framework of quantum field theory, the vacuum expectation value of the energy momentum tensor formally diverges as $k^4$. A cutoff…
We investigate an interacting dark energy model which allows for the kinetic term of the scalar field to couple to dark matter via a power-law interaction. The model is characterised by scaling solutions at early times, which are of high…
We investigate quintessence cosmologies with a matter component consisting of particles with an increasing mass. While negligible in early cosmology, the appearance of a growing matter component has stopped the evolution of the cosmon field…
K-essence is a possible candidate for dark energy of the Universe. In this paper we consider couplings of k-essence to the matter fields of the standard electroweak theory and study the effects of the cosmological CPT violation induced by…
The energy scale of Dark Energy, $\sim 2 \times 10^{-3}$ eV, is a long way off compared to all known fundamental scales - except for the neutrino masses. If Dark Energy is dynamical and couples to neutrinos, this is no longer a coincidence.…
We investigate a cosmological model in which dark energy, represented by a quintessential scalar field, is directly coupled to a dark-matter perfect fluid. We are interested in solutions of cosmological relevance, namely those for which a…
Dark energy appears to be the dominant component of the physical Universe, yet there is no persuasive theoretical explanation for its existence or magnitude. The acceleration of the Universe is, along with dark matter, the observed…
It is shown that quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to a curvature of space-time of the order appropriate to explain the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. The fact that the fluctuations produce curvature, even if the…
It is obtained that dark energy emerges from higher-derivative gravity with anon-linear terms proportional to $R^2$ and $R^3$ with $R$ being the Ricci scalar curvature. Interestingly, it is found that the universe begins with acceleration,…
We demonstrate that a suitable coupling between a quintessence scalar field and a pressureless cold dark matter (CDM) fluid leads to a constant ratio of the energy densities of both components which is compatible with an accelerated…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of higher order theories of gravity. We can define effective pressure and energy density directly connected to the Ricci scalar of curvature of a generic…
Interacting quintessence models have been proposed to explain or, at least, alleviate the coincidence problem of late cosmic acceleration. In this paper we are concerned with two aspects of these kind of models: (i) the dynamical evolution…
There is some evidence that the Universe is presently undergoing accelerating expansion. This has restored some credit to the scenarios with a non-vanishing cosmological constant. From the point of view of a theory of fundamental…
The equation of state of the hypothetical dark energy component, which constitutes about two thirds of the critical density of the universe, may be very different from that of a cosmological constant. Employing a phenomenological model, we…
The physical nature of the presently dominating enigmatic dark energy in the expanding universe is demonstrated to be explainable as an excess of the kinetic energy with respect to its potential energy. According to traditional Friedman…