Mass varying neutrinos, quintessence, and the accelerating expansion of the Universe

Journal Article · Tue Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.045033· OSTI ID:21505039

Chitov, Gennady Y; August, Tyler ^[1]; Natarajan, Aravind ^[2]; Kahniashvili, Tina ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Laurentian University, Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6 (Canada)
2. McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 (United States)

We analyze the mass varying neutrino scenario. We consider a minimal model of massless Dirac fermions coupled to a scalar field, mainly in the framework of finite-temperature quantum field theory. We demonstrate that the mass equation we find has nontrivial solutions only for special classes of potentials, and only within certain temperature intervals. We give most of our results for the Ratra-Peebles dark energy (DE) potential. The thermal (temporal) evolution of the model is analyzed. Following the time arrow, the stable, metastable, and unstable phases are predicted. The model predicts that the present Universe is below its critical temperature and accelerates. At the critical point, the Universe undergoes a first-order phase transition from the (meta)stable oscillatory regime to the unstable rolling regime of the DE field. This conclusion agrees with the original idea of quintessence as a force making the Universe roll towards its true vacuum with a zero {Lambda} term. The present mass varying neutrino scenario is free from the coincidence problem, since both the DE density and the neutrino mass are determined by the scale M of the potential. Choosing M{approx}10{sup -3} eV to match the present DE density, we can obtain the present neutrino mass in the range m{approx}10{sup -2}-1 eV and consistent estimates for other parameters of the Universe.

• OSTI ID: 21505039
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.045033; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
DENSITY
EXPANSION
MASS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
NEUTRINOS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SCALAR FIELDS
SIMULATION
UNIVERSE
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE