New accelerating solutions in late-time cosmology

Abstract

Dark energy models can be seen as dynamical systems. In this paper we show that multi-field models with a curved field space give rise to new critical points and we analyse their stability. These are new accelerating solutions in late-time cosmology which exist even for steep potentials. This opens up the possibility to realise quintessence models even when quantum corrections spoil the flatness of the underlying potential. These non-linear sigma models arise naturally in supergravity and string models where their multi-field dynamics can help to avoid swampland bounds.