The Robustness of Quintessence

Details The Robustness of Quintessence The Robustness of Quintessence

1999-12-02

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9912046v1

Phys.Rev. D61 (2000) 103502

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

16 pages, 7 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.61.103502

Recent observations seem to suggest that our Universe is accelerating implying that it is dominated by a fluid whose equation of state is negative. Quintessence is a possible explanation. In particular, the concept of tracking solutions permits to adress the fine-tuning and coincidence problems. We study this proposal in the simplest case of an inverse power potential and investigate its robustness to corrections. We show that quintessence is not affected by the one-loop quantum corrections. In the supersymmetric case where the quintessential potential is motivated by non-perturbative effects in gauge theories, we consider the curvature effects and the K\"ahler corrections. We find that the curvature effects are negligible while the K\"ahler corrections modify the early evolution of the quintessence field. Finally we study the supergravity corrections and show that they must be taken into account as $Q\approx m_{\rm Pl}$ at small red-shifts. We discuss simple supergravity models exhibiting the quintessential behaviour. In particular, we propose a model where the scalar potential is given by $V(Q)=\frac{\Lambda^{4+\alpha }}{Q^{\alpha}}e^{\frac{\kappa}{2}Q^2}$. We argue that the fine-tuning problem can be overcome if $\alpha \ge 11$. This model leads to $\omega_Q\approx -0.82$ for $\Omega_{\rm m}\approx 0.3$ which is in good agreement with the presently available data.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Robustness of Quintessence does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Robustness of Quintessence, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Robustness of Quintessence will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-261882