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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.08888 |
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Table of Contents:
- We analyse theories that do not have a de Sitter vacuum and cannot lead to slow-roll quintessence, but which nevertheless support a transient era of accelerated cosmological expansion due to interactions between a scalar $ϕ$ and either a hidden sector thermal bath, which evolves as Dark Radiation, or an extremely-light component of Dark Matter. We show that simple models can explain the present-day Dark Energy of the Universe consistently with current observations. This is possible both when $ϕ$'s potential has a hilltop form and when it has a steep exponential run-away, as might naturally arise from string theory. We also discuss a related theory of multi-field quintessence, in which $ϕ$ is coupled to a sector that sources a subdominant component of Dark Energy, which overcomes many of the challenges of slow-roll quintessence.