A General Model for Dark Energy Crossing the Phantom Divide

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yao, Zhibang, Ye, Gen, Silvestri, Alessandra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yao, Zhibang
Ye, Gen
Silvestri, Alessandra
author_facet Yao, Zhibang
Ye, Gen
Silvestri, Alessandra
contents Within the framework of spatially covariant theories, we propose a general model for dark energy (DE) in which the cosmological background and perturbations are independently controlled by different sets of coefficients, and the equation of state of DE is directly determined by two free functions of time from the Lagrangian. These properties allow to realize arbitrary background evolutions while avoiding ghost and gradient instabilities in linear perturbations. They also enable a more direct analysis of phantom crossing without having to first solve the background equations of motion. In this model, the sound speed of the scalar mode is scale-dependent and approaches infinity at large scale, so that the field becomes non-dynamical in the infrared (IR) limit. Even though this usually indicates a strong coupling issue, we speculate that this is avoided because the scalar degree of freedom becomes frozen not only at linear order but also at any higher order in IR limit. Given this characteristic large scales behavior, we dub the model \emph{Freezing Gravity}. On smaller scales, the scalar mode propagates with a finite speed of sound. The theory has a cut-off in energy, signaled by the pole in the speed of sound, when the effective Planck mass exceeds Planck mass.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_01378
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A General Model for Dark Energy Crossing the Phantom Divide
Yao, Zhibang
Ye, Gen
Silvestri, Alessandra
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Within the framework of spatially covariant theories, we propose a general model for dark energy (DE) in which the cosmological background and perturbations are independently controlled by different sets of coefficients, and the equation of state of DE is directly determined by two free functions of time from the Lagrangian. These properties allow to realize arbitrary background evolutions while avoiding ghost and gradient instabilities in linear perturbations. They also enable a more direct analysis of phantom crossing without having to first solve the background equations of motion. In this model, the sound speed of the scalar mode is scale-dependent and approaches infinity at large scale, so that the field becomes non-dynamical in the infrared (IR) limit. Even though this usually indicates a strong coupling issue, we speculate that this is avoided because the scalar degree of freedom becomes frozen not only at linear order but also at any higher order in IR limit. Given this characteristic large scales behavior, we dub the model \emph{Freezing Gravity}. On smaller scales, the scalar mode propagates with a finite speed of sound. The theory has a cut-off in energy, signaled by the pole in the speed of sound, when the effective Planck mass exceeds Planck mass.
title A General Model for Dark Energy Crossing the Phantom Divide
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.01378