Composite dark energy and the cosmological tensions

Abstract

The standard cosmological model currently in force, aka ΛCDM, has been plagued with a variety of phenomenological glitches or tensions in the last decade or so, which puts it against the wall. At the core of the ΛCDM we have a rigid cosmological term, Λ, for the entire cosmic history. This feature is unnatural and even inconsistent in the context of fundamental physics. Recently, the results from the DESI collaboration suggested the possibility that dark energy (DE) should be dynamical rather than just a cosmological constant. Using a generic $w_0{w}_a$CDM parameterization, DESI reported signs of quintessence behavior at $2.5-3.9\sigma$ c.l. by combining their BAO data with CMB and different SNIa samples. However, to alleviate the tensions the DE needs more features. In the proposed wXCDM model [45], the DE is actually a composite cosmic fluid with two components $(X,Y)$ acting sequentially: first X (above a transition redshift $z_t$) and second Y (below $z_t$). Fitting the model to the data, we find that the late component Y behaves as quintessence, like DESI. However, to cure the $H_0$ and growth tensions, X must behave as ‘phantom matter’ (PM), which in contrast to phantom DE provides positive pressure at the expense of negative energy density. The PM behavior actually appears in stringy versions of the running vacuum model (RVM). Using the SNIa (considering separately Pantheon+ and DESY5), cosmic chronometers, transversal BAO, LSS data, and the full CMB likelihood from Planck 2018, we find that both tensions can be completely cut down. We also compare the wXCDM with our own results using the standard wCDM and $w_0{w}_a$CDM parameterizations of the DE. In all cases, model wXCDM performs much better. Finally, we have repeated our analysis with BAO 3D data (replacing BAO 2D), and we still find that the main dynamical DE models (including composite ones) provide a much better fit quality compared to ΛCDM. The growth tension is alleviated again, but in contrast, the $H_0$-tension remains significant, which is most likely reminiscent of the internal conflict in the BAO sector.