Cosmological direct detection of dark energy: non-linear structure formation signatures of dark energy scattering with visible matter

Abstract

We consider the recently proposed possibility that dark energy (DE) and baryons may scatter through a pure momentum exchange process, leaving the background evolution unaffected. Earlier work has shown that, even for barn-scale cross-sections, the imprints of this scattering process on linear cosmological observables is too tiny to be observed. We therefore turn our attention to non-linear scales, and for the first time investigate the signatures of DE-baryon scattering on the non-linear formation of cosmic structures, by running a suite of large Nbody simulations. The observables we extract include the non-linear matter power spectrum, halo mass function, and density and baryon fraction profiles of halos. We find that in the nonlinear regime the signatures of DE-baryon scattering are significantly larger than their linear counterparts, due to the important role of angular momentum in collapsing structures, and potentially observable. The most promising observables in this sense are the baryon density and baryon fraction profiles of halos, which can potentially be constrained by a combination of kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ), thermal SZ, and weak lensing measurements. Overall, our results indicate that future prospects for cosmological and astrophysical direct detection of non-gravitational signatures of dark energy are extremely bright.

New tests of dark sector interactions from the full-shape galaxy power spectrum

“…We note that a separate but nonetheless associated possibility recently considered in the literature is that where DE interacts either with baryons[48][49][50][51][52] or with electromagnetism[53][54][55][56][57]. See also Refs [58,59].…”

Varification of Electron's Mass Deriving from Interactive Dark Sector and Cosmological Observation

“…In addition to the theoretical interest that our model is motivated by the theory of extra dimensions, there is a phenominological motivation. There have been some works which studied models with interactions between DE and baryons [49,50] and they relieve the Hubble tension a little (the DE-baryon interaction is also discussed in the context of the direct detection of DE [51,52]). In this paper we focus on electrons instead of the baryons as the matter which interacts with DE and to explore the efficacy of our model as a method of Hubble tension relief.…”

Negative cosmological constant in the dark energy sector: tests from JWST photometric and spectroscopic observations of high-redshift galaxies

“…Of course tests of DE are not limited to cosmological scales. Various tests of DE on astrophysical, astronomical, and even local scales, have been considered over the past decades, see refs [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. for examples in this sense.3 Distant galaxies are also useful as a test of cosmological models through their ages, which of course cannot exceed the age of the Universe: see for instance refs [32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”