Constraining Thawing Quintessence

TL;DR

This paper evaluates observational constraints on thawing quintessence models explaining cosmic acceleration, comparing them with other dark energy models using current and future data, and finds future surveys could distinguish these models from DM.

Contribution

It introduces the use of the Statefinder Hierarchy to compare thawing models with other dark energy models and forecasts their distinguishability with future observational data.

Findings

Current data cannot effectively distinguish thawing models from DM.

Future JDEM-like surveys could differentiate thawing models from DM.

Thawing models show degeneracy with DM under present observational constraints.

Abstract

We look at observational constraints on the thawing class of scalar field models proposed to explain the late time acceleration of the universe. Using the recently introduced `Statefinder Hierarchy', we compare these thawing class of models with other widely studied dark energy (and modified gravity) models to check the underlying parameter degeneracies. We put constraints on the deviations of these thawing models from the canonical \Lambda CDM model using a large class of observational data, e.g, the Supernova Type Ia data, the BAO data, the CMB data and data from the measurements of the Hubble parameter using red-envelope galaxies. We also forecast constraints using a simulated dataset for the future JDEM SNe survey. Our study shows that, although with current data it is difficult to distinguish different thawing models from \Lambda CDM, a future JDEM like mission would be able tell apart thawing models from \Lambda CDM for currently acceptable values of \Omega_{m0}