No Arabic abstract
We investigate a class of dark energy models in which the equation of state undergoes a rapid transition and for which the Hubble SN Ia diagram is known to be poorly discriminant. Interestingly enough, we find that transitions at high redshift can lead to distortion in the correlation function of dark matter at lower redshift. We therefore use a combination of the SN Ia Hubble diagram, Cosmic Microwave Background data and power spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Luminous Red Galaxies (SDSS LRG) to constrain the redshift of a possible transition. We find that the fundamental cosmological parameters are well constrained independently of the presence of a transition. Acceptable transitions from an equation of state close to $w = 0$ to a value close to -1 are strongly rejected at redshifts much higher than those for which Large Scale Structure and SN Ia data are available: the transition redshift can be rejected up to a value as high as 10. We conclude that no preference for a transition appears from present-day data.
We reconsider the dynamics of the Universe in the presence of interactions in the cosmological dark sector. A class of interacting models is introduced via a real function $fleft(rright)$ of the ratio $r$ between the energy densities of the (pressureless) cold dark matter (CDM) and dark energy (DE). The subclass of models for which the ratio $r$ depends only on the scale factor is shown to be equivalent to unified models of the dark sector, i.e. models for which the CDM and DE components can be combined in order to form a unified dark fluid. For specific choices of the function $fleft(rright)$ we recover several models already studied in the literature. We analyse various special cases of this type of interacting models using a suitably modified version of the CLASS code combined with MontePython in order to constrain the parameter space with the data from supernova of type SNe Ia (JLA), the Hubble constant $H_{0}$, cosmic chronometers (CC), baryon acoustic oscilations (BAO) and data from the Planck satellite (Planck TT). Our analysis shows that even if data from the late Universe ($H_{0}$, SNe Ia and CC) indicate an interaction in the dark sector, the data related to the early Universe (BAO and Planck TT) constrain this interaction substantially, in particular for cases in which the background dynamics is strongly affected.
We present new constraints on coupled dark energy from the recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies from the Planck satellite mission. We found that a coupled dark energy model is fully compatible with the Planck measurements, deriving a weak bound on the dark matter-dark energy coupling parameter xi=-0.49^{+0.19}_{-0.31} at 68% c.l.. Moreover if Planck data are fitted to a coupled dark energy scenario, the constraint on the Hubble constant is relaxed to H_0=72.1^{+3.2}_{-2.3} km/s/Mpc, solving the tension with the Hubble Space Telescope value. We show that a combined Planck+HST analysis provides significant evidence for coupled dark energy finding a non-zero value for the coupling parameter xi, with -0.90< xi <-0.22 at 95% c.l.. We also consider the combined constraints from the Planck data plus the BAO measurements of the 6dF Galaxy Survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Baron Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey.
The quest for understanding the late-time acceleration is haunted by an immense freedom in the analysis of dynamical models for dark energy in extended parameter spaces. Often-times having no prior knowledge at our disposal, arbitrary choices are implemented to reduce the degeneracies between parameters. We also encounter this issue in the case of quintessence fields, where a scalar degree of freedom drives the late-time acceleration. In this study, we implement a more physical prescription, the textit{flow} condition, to fine-tune the quintessence evolution for several field potentials. We find that this prescription agrees well with the most recent catalogue of data, namely supernovae type Ia, baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic clocks and distance to last scattering surface, and it enables us to infer the initial conditions for the field, both potential and cosmological parameters. At $2sigma$ we find stricter bounds on the potential parameters $f/m_{pl}>0.26$ and $n<0.15$ for the PNGB and IPL potentials, respectively, while constraints on cosmological parameters remain extremely consistent across all assumed potentials. By implementing information criteria to assess their ability to fit the data, we do not find any evidence against thawing models, which in fact are statistically equivalent to $Lambda$CDM, and the freezing ones are moderately disfavoured. Through our analysis we place upper bounds on the slope of quintessence potentials, consequently revealing a strong tension with the recently proposed swampland criterion, finding the 2$sigma$ upper bound of $lambda sim 0.31$ for the exponential potential.
The recent GW170817 measurement favors the simplest dark energy models, such as a single scalar field. Quintessence models can be classified in two classes, freezing and thawing, depending on whether the equation of state decreases towards $-1$ or departs from it. In this paper we put observational constraints on the parameters governing the equations of state of tracking freezing, scaling freezing and thawing models using updated data, from the Planck 2015 release, joint light-curve analysis and baryonic acoustic oscillations. Because of the current tensions on the value of the Hubble parameter $H_0$, unlike previous authors, we let this parameter vary, which modifies significantly the results. Finally, we also derive constraints on neutrino masses in each of these scenarios.
The Planck collaboration has recently published maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with the highest precision. In the standard flat $Lambda$CDM framework, Planck data show that the Hubble constant $H_0$ is in tension with that measured by the several direct probes on $H_0$. In this paper, we perform a global analysis from the current observational data in the general dark energy models and find that resolving this tension on $H_0$ requires the dark energy model with its equation of state (EoS) $w eq-1$. Firstly, assuming the $w$ to be a constant, the Planck data favor $w < -1$ at about $2,sigma$ confidence level when combining with the supernovae SNLS compilation. And consequently the value derived on $H_0$, $H_0=71.3pm2.0$ ${rm km,s^{-1},Mpc^{-1}}$ (68% C.L.), is consistent with that from direct $H_0$ probes. We then investigate the dark energy model with a time-evolving $w$, and obtain the 68% C.L. constraints $w_0=-0.81pm0.19$ and $w_a=-1.9pm1.1$ from the Planck data and the SNLS compilation. Current data still slightly favor the Quintom dark energy scenario with EoS across the cosmological constant boundary $wequiv-1$.