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Crossing the Phantom Divide: Dark Energy Internal Degrees of Freedom

4 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

4 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Dark energy constraints have forced viable alternatives that differ substantially from a cosmological constant Lambda to have an equation of state w that evolves across the phantom divide set by Lambda. Naively, crossing this divide makes the dark energy gravitationally unstable, a problem that is typically finessed by unphysically ignoring the perturbations. While this procedure does not affect constraints near the favored cosmological constant model it can artificially enhance the confidence with which alternate models are rejected. Similar to the general problem of stability for w< 0, the solution lies in the internal degrees of freedom in the dark energy sector. We explicitly show how to construct a two scalar field model that crosses the phantom divide and mimics the single field behavior on either side to substantially better than 1% in all observables. It is representative of models where the internal degrees of freedom keep the dark energy smooth out to the horizon scale independently of the equation of state.

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astro-ph.CO 4

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2026 2 2025 2

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representative citing papers

Quintom Model Perturbations

astro-ph.CO · 2026-06-25 · unverdicted · novelty 4.0

A two-field quintom model reproduces w0waCDM perturbation features and is mildly favored over it in Bayesian fits to BAO, CMB, and SNIa data.

The Quintom theory of dark energy after DESI DR2

astro-ph.CO · 2025-05-30 · unverdicted · novelty 3.0

This review traces the history of dynamical dark energy, presents the no-go theorem against single-field crossing of w = -1, and surveys viable Quintom constructions including multi-field models and modified gravity in light of DESI DR2 hints.

citing papers explorer

Showing 4 of 4 citing papers.

  • Into the Gompverse: A robust Gompertzian reionization model for CMB analyses astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-15 · unverdicted · none · ref 104

    A Gompertzian reionization model with three nuisance parameters demotes optical depth to a derived quantity, reducing its uncertainty by a factor of three and revealing potential neutrino mass tension in CMB analyses.

  • Quintom Model Perturbations astro-ph.CO · 2026-06-25 · unverdicted · none · ref 63 · internal anchor

    A two-field quintom model reproduces w0waCDM perturbation features and is mildly favored over it in Bayesian fits to BAO, CMB, and SNIa data.

  • Evidence for evolving dark energy from DESI DR2 BAO and Pantheon$^+$, DES-Dovekie, and Union3 astro-ph.CO · 2025-08-14 · conditional · none · ref 105 · internal anchor

    DESI DR2 BAO combined with Pantheon+, DES-Dovekie and Union3 supernovae yields 1.1-2.3 sigma preference for Quintom-B type evolving dark energy (w0 > -1, wa < 0) with phantom crossing near z ~ 0.5, but no model reaches robust statistical significance.

  • The Quintom theory of dark energy after DESI DR2 astro-ph.CO · 2025-05-30 · unverdicted · none · ref 90 · internal anchor

    This review traces the history of dynamical dark energy, presents the no-go theorem against single-field crossing of w = -1, and surveys viable Quintom constructions including multi-field models and modified gravity in light of DESI DR2 hints.