Dark energy and particle mixing

TL;DR

This paper proposes that vacuum condensates from particle mixing, such as neutrinos and quarks, can account for the observed dark energy, with their properties aligning with current cosmological bounds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism linking particle mixing-induced vacuum condensates to dark energy, providing a potential explanation consistent with observational constraints.

Findings

Vacuum condensates from particle mixing can produce a dark energy component.

The adiabatic index near -1 indicates a cosmological constant-like behavior.

Contributions from neutrino and quark condensates match current dark energy estimates.

Abstract

We show that the vacuum condensate due to particle mixing is responsible of a dynamically evolving dark energy. In particular, we show that values of the adiabatic index close to -1 for vacuum condensates of neutrinos and quarks imply, at the present epoch, contributions to the vacuum energy compatible with the estimated upper bound on the dark energy.