Features in the dark energy equation of state and modulations in the Hubble diagram

Abstract

We probe the time dependence of the dark energy equation of state (EOS) in light of three-year WMAP (WMAP3) and the combination with other tentative cosmological observations from galaxy clustering (SDSS) and Type Ia Supernova (SNIa). We mainly focus on cases where the EOS is oscillating or with local bumps. By performing a global analysis with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, we find the current observations, in particular the WMAP3 + SDSS data combination, allow large oscillations of the EOS which can leave oscillating features on the (residual) Hubble diagram, and such oscillations are potentially detectable by future observations like SNAP, or even by the CURRENTLY ONGOING SNIa observations. Local bumps of dark energy EOS can also leave imprints on CMB, LSS and SNIa. In cases where the bumps take place at low redshifts and the effective EOS are close to -1, CMB and LSS observations cannot give constraints on such possibilities. However, geometrical observations like (future) SNIa can possibly detect such features. On the other hand when the local bumps take place at higher redshifts beyond the detectability of SNIa, future precise observations like Gamma-ray bursts, CMB and LSS may possibly detect such features. In particular, we find that bump-like dark energy EOS on high redshifts might be responsible for the features of WMAP on ranges l \sim 30-50, which is interesting and deserves addressing further.