Initial conditions for quintessence after inflation

2002/03/31 by Michael Malquarti, Michaël Malquarti, Andrew R. Liddle +1 · 2 citations
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Climate variability and models #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.66.023524

published as Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 023524 · 6 pages RevTeX4 file with five figures incorporated. Matches published version

arxiv created 2002/07/10 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We consider the behavior of a quintessence field during an inflationary epoch, in order to learn how inflation influences the likely initial conditions for quintessence. We use the stochastic inflation formalism to study quantum fluctuations induced in the quintessence field during the early stages of inflation, and conclude that these drive its mean to large values (\ensuremath\gtrsim0.1m_Pl). Consequently we find that tracker behavior typically starts at low redshift, long after nucleosynthesis and most likely also after decoupling.

Citations

• Cosmological consequences of a rolling homogeneous scalar field
• The Case for a Positive Cosmological Lambda-term

Cited by

• Of pNGB quiScript Ntessence
• Big bang nucleosynthesis and CMB constraints on dark energy