Assessing the viability of successful reconstruction of the dynamics of dark energy using varying fundamental couplings

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

P. P. Avelino (Author) FEUP; L. L. Losano (Author) FEUP; R. Menezes (Author) Other; J. C. R. E. Oliveira (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics

Vol. 717

Pages: 313-318

ISSN: 0370-2693

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

Scopus - 3 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences

CORDIS: Physical sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-4B7

DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2012.09.062

Abstract (EN): We assess the viability of successful reconstruction of the evolution of the dark energy equation of state using varying fundamental couplings, such as the fine structure constant or the proton-to-electron mass ratio. We show that the same evolution of the dark energy equation of state parameter with cosmic time may be associated with arbitrary variations of the fundamental couplings. Various examples of models with the same (different) background evolution and different (the same) time variation of fundamental couplings are studied in the Letter. Although we demonstrate that, for a broad family of models, it is possible to redefine the scalar field in such a way that its dynamics is that of a standard quintessence scalar field, in general such redefinition leads to the breakdown of the linear relation between the scalar field and the variation of fundamental couplings. This implies that the assumption of a linear coupling is not sufficient to guarantee a successful reconstruction of the dark energy dynamics and consequently additional model dependent assumptions about the scalar field responsible for the dark energy need to be made.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6