Classical, quantum, and phenomenological aspects of dark energy models

TL;DR

This paper reviews various dark energy models, focusing on vacuum energy, scalar field interactions, and quantum condensates, aiming to distinguish their phenomenological signatures in the context of the universe's accelerated expansion.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of classical, quantum, and phenomenological aspects of dark energy models, including their properties and potential observational discriminants.

Findings

Scalar field models can explain acceleration phenomena.

Quantum condensates offer a quantum field theoretical perspective.

Phenomenological distinctions can help differentiate models.

Abstract

The origin of accelerating expansion of the Universe is one the biggest conundrum of fundamental physics. In this paper we review vacuum energy issues as the origin of accelerating expansion - generally called dark energy - and give an overview of alternatives, which a large number of them can be classified as interacting scalar field models. We review properties of these models both as classical field and as quantum condensates in the framework of non-equilibrium quantum field theory. Finally, we review phenomenology of models with the goal of discriminating between them.