Interaction In Dark Sector Research Articles

CMB and matter power spectra with non-linear dark-sector interactions

An interaction between dark matter and dark energy, proportional to the product of their energy densities, results in a scaling behavior of the ratio of these densities with respect to the scale factor of the Robertson-Walker metric. This gives rise to a class of cosmological models which deviate from the standard model in an analytically tractable way. In particular, it becomes possible to quantify the role of potential dark-energy perturbations. We investigate the impact of this interaction on the structure formation process. Using the (modified) CAMB code we obtain the CMB spectrum as well as the linear matter power spectrum. It is shown that the strong degeneracy in the parameter space present in the background analysis is considerably reduced by considering Planck data. Our analysis is compatible with the ΛCDM model at the 2σ confidence level with a slightly preferred direction of the energy flow from dark matter to dark energy.

Probing the interaction between dark matter and dark energy in the presence of massive neutrinos

We consider the possibility of an interaction in the dark sector in the presence of massive neutrinos, and study the observational constraints on three different scenarios of massive neutrinos using the most recent CMB anisotropy data in combination with type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Hubble parameter measurements. When a sterile neutrino is introduced in the interacting dark sector scenario in addition to the standard model prediction of neutrinos, we find that the coupling parameter, characterizing the interaction between dark matter and dark energy, is non-zero at 2$\sigma$ confidence level. The interaction model with sterile neutrino is also found to be a promising one to alleviate the current tension on Hubble constant. We do not find the evidence for a coupling in the dark sector when the possibility of a sterile neutrino is discarded.

Impacts of different SNLS3 light-curve fitters on cosmological consequences of interacting dark energy models

We explore the cosmological consequences of interacting dark energy (IDE) models using the SNLS3 supernova samples. In particular, we focus on the impacts of different SNLS3 light-curve fitters (LCF) (corresponding to "SALT2", "SiFTO", and "Combined" sample). Firstly, making use of the three SNLS3 data sets, as well as the Planck distance priors data and the galaxy clustering data, we constrain the parameter spaces of three IDE models. Then, we study the cosmic evolutions of Hubble parameter $H(z)$, deceleration diagram $q(z)$, statefinder hierarchy $S^{(1)}_3(z)$ and $S^{(1)}_4(z)$, and check whether or not these dark energy diagnosis can distinguish the differences among the results of different SNLS3 LCF. At last, we perform high redshift cosmic age test using three old high redshift objects (OHRO), and explore the fate of the Universe. We find that, the impacts of different SNLS3 LCF are rather small, and can not be distinguished by using $H(z)$, $q(z)$, $S^{(1)}_3(z)$, $S^{(1)}_4(z)$, and the age data of OHRO. In addition, we infer, from the current observations, how far we are from a cosmic doomsday in the worst case, and find that the "Combined" sample always gives the largest 2$\sigma$ lower limit of the time interval between "big rip" and today, while the results given by the "SALT2" and the "SiFTO" sample are close to each other. These conclusions are insensitive to a specific form of dark sector interaction. Our method can be used to distinguish the differences among various cosmological observations.

Implications of cosmological observables for particle physics: an overview

I review how precision data from observations of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the large-scale structure distribution can be used to probe particle physics. Some examples are the absolute neutrino mass scale, dark radiation, light sterile neutrinos, QCD axions, WIMP annihilation, and dark sector interactions.

Low-ztest for interacting dark energy

A non-minimal coupling between the dark matter and dark energy components may offer a way of solving the so-called coincidence problem. In this paper we propose a low-$z$ test for such hypothesis using measurements of the gas mass fraction $f_{\rm{gas}}$ in relaxed and massive galaxy clusters. The test applies to any model whose dilution of dark matter is modified with respect to the standard $a^{-3}$ scaling, as usual in interacting models, where $a$ is the cosmological scale factor. We apply the test to current $f_{\rm{gas}}$ data and perform Monte Carlo simulations to forecast the necessary improvements in number and accuracy of upcoming observations to detect a possible interaction in the cosmological dark sector. Our results show that improvements in the present relative error $\sigma_{\rm{gas}}/f_{\rm{gas}}$ are more effective to achieve this goal than an increase in the size of the $f_{\rm{gas}}$ sample.

Phenomenological models of dark energy interacting with dark matter

An interaction between dark matter and dark energy is usually introduced by a phenomenological modification of the matter conservation equations, while the Einstein equations are left unchanged. Starting from some general and fundamental considerations, in this work it is shown that a coupling in the dark sector is likely to introduce new terms also in the gravitational dynamics. Specifically in the cosmological background equations a bulk dissipative pressure, characterizing viscous effects and able to suppress structure formation at small scales, should appear from the dark coupling. At the level of the perturbations the analysis presented in this work reveals instead the difficulties in properly defining the dark sector interaction from a phenomenological perspective.

Degeneracy between primordial non-Gaussianity and interaction in the dark sector

If dark energy and dark matter interact via exchange of energy and momentum, then this may affect the galaxy power spectrum on large scales. When this happens, it may be degenerate with the signal from primordial non-Gaussianity via scale-dependent bias. We consider a class of interacting dark energy models and show that the matter overdensity is scale-dependent on large scales. We estimate the effective non-Gaussianity arising from the large-scale effects of interaction in the dark sector. The signal of dark sector interaction can be disentangled from a primordial non-Gaussian signal by measuring the power at two redshifts.

Dark matter–dark energy interaction for a time-dependent EoS parameter

In this work we investigate the interaction between dark matter and dark energy for a coupling that obeys the Wang-Meng decaying law, $\rho_{{\rm DM}}\propto (1+z)^{3-\epsilon}$, and the Barboza-Alcaniz dark energy parametric model, $w=w_0+w'_0z(1+z)/(1+z^2)$. Theoretically, we show that the coupling constant, $\epsilon$, should satisfy the physical constraint $\epsilon\ge0$. We use the most recent data of type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic microwave background and the Hubble expansion rate function to constrain the free parameters of the model. From a purely observational point of view, we show that is not possible to discard values of the coupling constant in the unphysical region $\epsilon<0$. We show that the uncoupled case, $\epsilon=0$, is in better agreement with the data than any of coupled models in the physical region. We also find that all physically acceptable interaction in dark sector lies in the narrow range $0<\epsilon\le0.034$ ($95\%$ CL).

Cosmological evolution of quintessence with a sign-changing interaction in dark sector

Dark energy and dark matter are only indirectly measured though their gravitational effects. It is possibie that there is some direct, non-gravitational interaction between DE and DM, which can be used to solve (or, at least alleviate) several important theoretical problems. In the present work, by analysing the cosmological dynamical system with a dark-sector interaction which changes its sign during the cosmological evolution, we find a scaling attractor to help to alleviate the cosmic-coincidence problem. This result shows that this interaction can bring new features to the cosmology.

Stable large-scale perturbations in interacting dark-energy model

It is found that the evolutions of density perturbations on the super-Hubble scales are unstable in the models with dark-sector interaction Q proportional to the energy density of cold dark matter (CDM) and constant equation of state parameter of dark energy (DE). In this paper, to avoid the instabilities, we suggest a new covariant model for the energy-momentum transfer between DE and CDM. Then we show that the the large-scale instabilities of curvature perturbations can be avoided in a universe filled only by DE and CDM. Furthermore, by including the additional components of radiation and baryons, we calculate the dominant non-adiabatic modes in the radiation era and find that the modes grow in the power law with exponent at the order of unit.

Dark matter with density-dependent interactions

The decay and annihilation cross sections of dark matter particles may depend on the value of a chameleonic scalar field that both evolves cosmologically and takes different values depending on the local matter density. This possibility introduces a separation between the physics relevant for freeze-out and that responsible for dynamics and detection in the late universe. We investigate how such dark sector interactions might be implemented in a particle physics Lagrangian and consider how current and upcoming observations and experiments bound such dark matter candidates. A specific simple model allows for an increase in the annihilation cross section by a factor of $10^6$ between freeze-out and today, while more complicated models should also allow for scattering cross sections near the astrophysical bounds.

Exact cosmological solutions of models with an interacting dark sector

In this work we extend the first order formalism for cosmological models that present an interaction between a fermionic and a scalar field. Cosmological exact solutions describing universes filled with interacting dark energy and dark matter have been obtained. Viable cosmological solutions with an early period of decelerated expansion followed by late acceleration have been found, notably one which presents a dark matter component dominating in the past and a dark energy component dominating in the future. In another one, the dark energy alone is the responsible for both periods, similar to a Chaplygin gas case. Exclusively accelerating solutions have also been obtained.

Multiple dark matter as a self‐regulating mechanism for dark sector interactions

AbstractA wide range of astrophysical and cosmological observations support the evidence that the energy density of the Universe is presently largely dominated by particles and fields that do not belong to the standard model of particle physics. Such cosmic dark sector appears to be made of two distinct entities capable to account for the growth of large‐scale structures and for the observed acceleration of the expansion rate of the Universe, respectively dubbed dark matter and dark energy. Nevertheless, the fundamental nature of these two dark components has so far remained mysterious. In the currently accepted scenario dark matter is associated to a single new massive and weakly interacting particle beyond the standard model, while dark energy is assumed to be a simple cosmological constant. However, present cosmological constraints and the absence of a direct detection and identification of any dark matter particle candidate leave room to the possibility that the dark sector of the Universe be actually more complex than it is normally assumed. In particular, more than one new fundamental particle could be responsible for the observed dark matter density in the Universe, and possible new interactions between dark energy and dark matter might characterize the dark sector. In the present work, the possibility that two dark matter particles may exist in nature is investigated. These different species are assumed to have identical physical properties except for the sign of their coupling constant to dark energy. Extending previous works on similar scenarios, the evolution of the background cosmology as well as the growth of linear density perturbations for a wide range of parameters of such multiple dark matter model is studied. Interestingly, the results show how the simple assumption that dark matter particles carry a “charge” with respect to their interaction with the dark energy field allows for new long‐range scalar forces of gravitational strength in the dark sector without conflicting with present observations both at the background and linear levels. The presented scenario does not introduce new parameters with respect to the case of a single dark matter species for which such strong dark interactions have been already ruled out. Therefore, the present investigation suggests that only a detailed study of nonlinear structure formation processes might possibly provide effective constraints on new scalar interactions of gravitational strength in the dark sector.

Deep connection betweenf(R)gravity and the interacting dark sector model

We examine the conformal equivalence between the $f(R)$ gravity and the interacting dark sector model. We review the well-known result that the conformal transformation physically corresponds to the mass dilation which marks the strength of interaction between dark sectors. Instead of modeling f(R) gravity in the Jordan frame, we construct the $f(R)$ gravity in terms of mass dilation function in the Einstein frame. We find that the condition to keep $f(R)$ gravity consistent with CMB observations ensures the energy flow from dark energy to dark matter in the corresponding interacting model, which meets the requirement to alleviate the coincidence problem in the Einstein framework.

Interacting dark matter and modified holographic Ricci dark energy induce a relaxed Chaplygin gas

We investigate a model of interacting dark matter and dark energy given by a modified holographic Ricci cutoff in a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) space-time. We consider a nonlinear interaction consisting of a significant rational function of the total energy density and its first derivative homogeneous of degree one and show that the effective one-fluid obeys the equation of state of a relaxed Chaplygin gas. So that, the universe is dominated by pressureless dark matter at early times and undergoes an accelerated expansion in the far future driven by a strong negative pressure. We apply the $\chi^{2}$-statistical method to the observational Hubble data and the Union2 compilation of SNe Ia for constraining the cosmological parameters and analyze the feasibility of the modified holographic Ricci cutoff. By using the new $Om$ diagnostic method, we find that the effective model differs substantially from the $\Lambda$--CDM one, because it gets the accelerated expansion faster than the $\Lambda$--CDM model. Finally, a new model with a third component decoupled from the interacting dark sector is presented for studying bounds on the dark energy at early times.

A gauge-invariant approach to interactions in the dark sector

We outline a gauge-invariant framework to calculate cosmological perturbations in dark energy models consisting of a scalar field interacting with dark matter via energy and momentum exchanges. Focusing on three well-known models of quintessence and three common types of dark sector interactions, we calculate the matter and dark energy power spectra as well as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in these models. We show how the presence of dark sector interactions can produce a large-scale enhancement in the matter power spectrum and a boost in the low multipoles of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Nevertheless, we find these enhancements to be much more subtle than those found by previous authors who model dark energy using simple ansatz for the equation of state. We also address issues of instabilities and emphasise the importance of momentum exchanges in the dark sector.

Running coupling: does the coupling between dark energy and dark matter change sign during the cosmological evolution?

In this paper we put forward a running coupling scenario for describing the interaction between dark energy and dark matter. The dark sector interaction in our scenario is free of the assumption that the interaction term $Q$ is proportional to the Hubble expansion rate and the energy densities of dark sectors. We only use a time-variable coupling $b(a)$ (with $a$ the scale factor of the universe) to characterize the interaction $Q$. We propose a parametrization form for the running coupling $b(a)=b_0a+b_e(1-a)$ in which the early-time coupling is given by a constant $b_e$, while today the coupling is given by another constant, $b_0$. For investigating the feature of the running coupling, we employ three dark energy models, namely, the cosmological constant model ($w=-1$), the constant $w$ model ($w=w_0$), and the time-dependent $w$ model ($w(a)=w_0+w_1(1-a)$). We constrain the models with the current observational data, including the type Ia supernova, the baryon acoustic oscillation, the cosmic microwave background, the Hubble expansion rate, and the X-ray gas mass fraction data. The fitting results indicate that a time-varying vacuum scenario is favored, in which the coupling $b(z)$ crosses the noninteracting line ($b=0$) during the cosmological evolution and the sign changes from negative to positive. The crossing of the noninteracting line happens at around $z=0.2-0.3$, and the crossing behavior is favored at about 1$\sigma$ confidence level. Our work implies that we should pay more attention to the time-varying vacuum model and seriously consider the phenomenological construction of a sign-changeable or oscillatory interaction between dark sectors.

THE EFFECT OF COUPLED DARK ENERGY ON THE ALIGNMENT BETWEEN DARK MATTER AND GALAXY DISTRIBUTIONS IN CLUSTERS

We investigate the effects of a coupled Dark Energy (cDE) scalar field on the alignment between satellites and matter distributions in galaxy clusters. Using high-resolution N-body simulations for LCDM and cDE cosmological models, we compute the probability density distribution for the alignment angle between the satellite galaxies and underlying matter distributions, finding a difference between the two scenarios. With respect to LCDM, in cDE cosmologies the satellite galaxies are less preferentially located along the major axis of the matter distribution, possibly reducing the tension with obersevational data. A physical explanation is that the coupling between dark matter and dark energy acts as an additional tidal force on the satellite galaxies diminishing the alignments between their distribution and the matter one. Through a Wald test based on the generalized chi-square statistics, the null hypothesis that the two probability distributions come from the same parent population is rejected at the 99 % confidence level. It is concluded that the galaxy-matter alignment in clusters may provide a unique probe of dark sector interactions as well as the nature of dark energy.

Cosmological evolution of quintessence and phantom with a new type of interaction in dark sector

In the present work, motivated by the work of Cai and Su [Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 103514], we propose a new type of interaction in dark sector, which can change its sign when our universe changes from deceleration to acceleration. We consider the cosmological evolution of quintessence and phantom with this type of interaction, and find that there are some scaling attractors which can help to alleviate the cosmological coincidence problem. Our results also show that this new type of interaction can bring new features to cosmology.

Velocities as a probe of dark sector interactions

Dark energy in General Relativity is typically non-interactingwith other matter. However, it is possible that the dark energyinteracts with the dark matter, and in this case, the dark mattercan violate the universality of free fall (the weak equivalenceprinciple). We show that some forms of the dark sector interactiondo not violate weak equivalence. For those interactions that doviolate weak equivalence, there are no available laboratoryexperiments to probe this violation for dark matter. But cosmologyprovides a test for violations of the equivalence principlebetween dark matter and baryons—via a test for consistency ofthe observed galaxy velocities with the Euler equation.