Cosmological consequences of a scalar field with oscillating equation of state. IV. Primordial nucleosynthesis and the deuterium problem

Abstract

We study the primordial nucleosynthesis (BBN) in the stepwise scalar field model proposed by Ti\'an [Phys. Rev. D 101, 063531 (2020)], which provides a multiaccelerating Universe solution to the cosmological coincidence problem and predicts that the scalar field may be non-negligible even in the early Universe. The observed abundances of the light elements can be used to constrain the energy density of the scalar field during the BBN era. We present a public matlab code to implement the BBN calculation in the stepwise scalar field model. We show that the model can survive the BBN constraints. In particular, this model incorporates a new solution to the possible deuterium problem: very early dark energy that appears at the end of BBN. In addition, the BBN constraints, along with constraints from the cosmic late-time acceleration, suggest that the Universe in the radiation era evolves in a chaotic accelerating manner, rather than an oscillating scaling manner.