Testing generic predictions of dark energy

TL;DR

This paper explores how measurements of the universe's expansion can test dark energy models by predicting large-scale structure growth, highlighting a potential way to falsify quintessence models and distinguish dark energy from modified gravity.

Contribution

It provides current predictions for growth history based on distance measurements, identifying a generic limit for quintessence models to test their validity.

Findings

A generic limit on growth evolution for quintessence models.

Distance measurements can test and potentially falsify classes of dark energy models.

Understanding growth predictions helps differentiate dark energy from modified gravity.

Abstract

Constraints on the expansion history of the universe from measurements of cosmological distances make predictions for large-scale structure growth. Since these predictions depend on assumptions about dark energy evolution and spatial curvature, they can be used to test general classes of dark energy models by comparing predictions for those models with direct measurements of the growth history. I present predictions from current distance measurements for the growth history of dark energy models including a cosmological constant and quintessence. Although a time-dependent dark energy equation of state significantly weakens predictions for growth from measured distances, for quintessence there is a generic limit on the growth evolution that could be used to falsify the whole class of quintessence models. Understanding the allowed range of growth for dark energy models in the context of general relativity is a crucial step for efforts to distinguish dark energy from modified gravity.