Dark matter from dark energy-baryonic matter couplings

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where dark energy interacts with baryonic matter through a scalar field, potentially explaining dark matter phenomena and matching observational data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coupling between dark energy and baryonic matter, deriving cosmological solutions and analyzing perturbations consistent with observations.

Findings

The model fits supernovae data well.

Perturbation analysis shows acceptable behavior.

Density contrast growth similar to ΛCDM.

Abstract

We present a scenario in which a scalar field dark energy is coupled to the trace of the energy momentum tensor of the baryonic matter fields. In the slow-roll regime, this interaction could give rise to the cosmological features of dark matter. We work out the cosmological background solutions and fit the parameters of the model using the Union 2 supernovae data set. Then, we develop the cosmological perturbations up to linear order, and we find that the perturbed variables have an acceptable behavior, in particular the density contrast of baryonic matter grows similar to that in the $\Lambda$CDM model for a suitable choice of the strength parameter of the coupling.