We propose in this paper a quintom model of dark energy with a single scalar field $phi$ given by the lagrangian ${cal L}=-V(phi)sqrt{1-alpha^prime abla_{mu}phi abla^{mu}phi +beta^prime phiBoxphi}$. In the limit of $beta^primeto$0 our model reduces to the effective low energy lagrangian of tachyon considered in the literature. We study the cosmological evolution of this model, and show explicitly the behaviors of the equation of state crossing the cosmological constant boundary.
Motivated in part by string theory, we consider the idea that the standard LambdaCDM cosmological model might be modified by the effect of a long-range scalar dark matter interaction. The variant of this widely-discussed notion considered here is suggested by the Brandenberger-Vafa picture for why we perceive three spatial dimensions. In this picture there may be at least two species of dark matter particles, with scalar ``charges such that the scalar interaction attracts particles with like sign and repels unlike signs. The net charge vanishes. Under this condition the evolution of the mass distribution in linear perturbation theory is the same as in the LambdaCDM cosmology, and both models therefore can equally well pass the available cosmological tests. The physics can be very different on small scales, however: if the scalar interaction has the strength suggested by simp
We examine an extension of the quintom scenario of dark energy, in which a canonical scalar field and a phantom field are coupled through a kinetic interaction. We perform a phase space analysis and show that the kinetic coupling gives rise to novel cosmological behaviour. In particular, we obtain both quintessence-like and phantom-like late-time solutions, as well as solutions that cross the phantom divide during the evolution of the universe.
It is well known that global symmetries protect local supersymmetry and a zero value for the cosmological constant in no--scale supergravity. The breakdown of these symmetries, which ensure the vanishing of the vacuum energy density, results in a set of degenerate vacua with broken and unbroken supersymmetry leading to the natural realisation of the multiple point principle (MPP). Assuming the degeneracy of vacua with broken and unbroken SUSY in the hidden sector we estimate the value of the cosmological constant. We argue that the observed value of the dark energy density can be reproduced in the split-SUSY scenario if the SUSY breaking scale is of the order of 10^{10} GeV.
We propose a construction with which to resolve the black hole singularity and enable an anisotropic cosmology to emerge from the inside of the hole. The model relies on the addition of an S-brane to the effective action which describes the geometry of space-time. This space-like defect is located inside of the horizon on a surface where the Weyl curvature reaches a limiting value. We study how metric fluctuations evolve from the outside of the black hole to the beginning of the cosmological phase to the future of the S-brane. Our setup addresses i) the black hole singularity problem, ii) the cosmological singularity problem and iii) the information loss paradox since the outgoing Hawking radiation is entangled with the state inside the black hole which becomes the new universe.
We study the phenomenology of a recent string construction with a quantum mechanically stable dark energy. A mild supersymmetry protects the vacuum energy but also allows $O(10 - 100)$ TeV scale superpartner masses. The construction is holographic in the sense that the 4D spacetime is generated from pixels originating from five-branes wrapped over metastable five-cycles of the compactification. The cosmological constant scales as $Lambda sim 1/N$ in the pixel number. An instability in the construction leads to cosmic expansion. This also causes more five-branes to wind up in the geometry, leading to a slowly decreasing cosmological constant which we interpret as an epoch of inflation followed by (pre-)heating when a rare event occurs in which the number of pixels increases by an order one fraction. The sudden appearance of radiation triggers an exponential increase in the number of pixels. Dark energy has a time varying equation of state with $w_a=-3Omega_{m,0}(1+w_0)/2$, which is compatible with current bounds, and could be constrained further by future data releases. The pixelated nature of the Universe also implies a large-$l$ cutoff on the angular power spectrum of cosmological observables with $l_{rm max} sim O(N)$. We also use this pixel description to study the thermodynamics of de Sitter space, finding rough agreement with effective field theory considerations.