Dynamical friction by coupled dark energy

TL;DR

This paper investigates how coupled dark energy influences dynamical friction within galaxies, revealing that interactions can cause significant deviations from standard models, but effects are minimal under cosmological constraints.

Contribution

It derives the Newtonian limit of coupled dark energy models and analyzes dynamical friction effects, highlighting the impact of dark energy-matter interactions at galactic scales.

Findings

Interaction causes dynamical friction in coupled dark energy models.

Effects are significant when free parameters are unconstrained.

Effects are negligible under cosmological parameter constraints.

Abstract

In this paper, we examine dynamical friction at galactic scales within the framework of coupled dark energy. This model posits dark energy as coupled quintessence, which maintains a minimal coupling to gravity but interacts non-minimally with both dark matter and baryonic matter. Since our focus is primarily on the Newtonian regime within galaxies, we begin by deriving the Newtonian limit of the model. Subsequently, we calculate the dynamical friction force using three different approaches. We demonstrate that, in the absence of interaction between dark energy and matter, standard quintessence does not generate any dynamical friction at the galactic scale. However, the presence of interaction does cause dynamical friction. By applying the resulting analytic expressions to a real self-gravitating system, namely the Fornax galaxy, and by implementing the constraints on the free parameter of the model obtained from galactic observations, we demonstrate that the coupled dark energy model leads to significant deviations from the standard cold dark matter model at galactic scales. On the other hand, if the cosmological constraints are assumed for the free parameter, the effects of the model are expected to be negligible at the galactic level, at least in dynamical friction.