Confronting Tracker Field Quintessence with Data

TL;DR

This paper tests various tracker field quintessence models against recent observational data from supernovae, CMB, and BAO, constraining their parameters and assessing their viability compared to the cosmological constant.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive comparison of multiple tracker quintessence potentials with the latest observational data, constraining their parameters and viability.

Findings

Certain potentials are disfavored by data.

Stringent parameter constraints are obtained.

Some models are not supported by current observations.

Abstract

We confront tracker field quintessence with observational data. The potentials considered in this paper include $V(\phi)\propto\phi^{-\alpha}$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)-1$, $\exp(\beta M_{p}/\phi)$ and $\exp(\gamma M_{p}/\phi)-1$; while the data come from the latest SN Ia, CMB and BAO observations. Stringent parameter constraints are obtained. In comparison with the cosmological constant via information criteria, it is found that models with potentials $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)$, $\exp(M_{p}/\phi)-1$ and $\exp(\gamma M_{p}/\phi)-1$ are not supported by the current data.