Reconstructing the dark energy equation of state with varying couplings

P. P. Avelino, C. J. A. P. Martins, N. J. Nunes, and K. A. Olive

Phys. Rev. D 74, 083508 – Published 13 October 2006

Abstract

We revisit the idea of using varying couplings to probe the nature of dark energy, in particular, by reconstructing its equation of state. We show that for the class of models studied this method can be far superior to the standard methods (using type Ia supernovae or weak lensing). We also show that the simultaneous use of measurements of the fine-structure constant $α$ and the electron-to-proton mass ratio $μ$ allows a direct probe of grand unification scenarios. We present forecasts for the sensitivity of this method, both for the near future and for the next generation of spectrographs—for the latter we focus on the planned CODEX instrument for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (formerly known as OWL). A high-accuracy reconstruction of the equation of state may be possible all the way up to redshift $z \sim 4$ .

Received 5 June 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.74.083508

Authors & Affiliations

P. P. Avelino^1,2,*, C. J. A. P. Martins^1,3,†, N. J. Nunes^4,‡, and K. A. Olive^4,§

¹Centro de Física do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
²Departamento de Física da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
³Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
⁴School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street S.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

^*Electronic address: ppavelin@fc.up.pt
^†Electronic address: C.J.A.P.Martins@damtp.cam.ac.uk
^‡Electronic address: nunes@physics.umn.edu
^§Electronic address: olive@physics.umn.edu

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Vol. 74, Iss. 8 — 15 October 2006

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Physical Review D

covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology