Gaussian Processes Reconstruction of the Dark Energy Potential

TL;DR

This paper uses Gaussian processes to reconstruct dark energy scalar field potentials directly from observational data, testing the compatibility of popular potential forms without assuming specific models.

Contribution

It introduces a model-independent reconstruction method for scalar field potentials from observational data, avoiding assumptions about their functional form.

Findings

Power-law and quadratic potentials are compatible with reconstructed potentials.

Reconstruction depends on priors of matter density and curvature.

Potential forms are consistent within certain redshift ranges.

Abstract

Scalar Fields (SF) have emerged as natural candidates for dark energy as quintessential or phantom fields, as they are the main ingredient of inflation theories. Instead of assuming some form for the scalar field potential, however, this work reconstructs the SF potential directly from observational data, namely, \textbf{Hubble and SNe Ia data}. We show that two popular forms for the SF potentials, namely, the power-law and the quadratic free-field, are compatible with the reconstructions thus obtained, at least for some choices of the priors of the matter density and curvature parameters and for some redshift intervals.