Cuscuton-like contribution to dark energy evolution

D. Bazeia; J. D. Dantas; S. Santos da Costa

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-13855-1

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2025) 85: 196
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-13855-1

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Cuscuton-like contribution to dark energy evolution

D. Bazeia¹^a, J. D. Dantas² and S. Santos da Costa³^,4^,5

¹ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58051-970, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil
² Unidade Acadêmica de Física e Matemática, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, 58175-000, Cuité, Paraíba, Brazil
³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento, Via Sommarive 14, 38123, Povo, Trento, Italy
⁵ Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA), Via Sommarive 14, 38123, Povo, Trento, Italy

^a dbazeia@gmail.com

Received: 30 April 2024
Accepted: 23 January 2025
Published online: 18 February 2025

Abstract

This work deals with the presence of the cuscuton term in the otherwise standard dark energy evolution under the usual FLRW background. We disclose a first-order framework similar to the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism, which helps us to solve the equations of motion and find analytical solutions. We explore several possibilities, concentrating mainly on how the cuscuton-like contribution works to modify cosmic evolution. Some results are of current interest since they describe scenarios capable of changing the evolution, adding or excluding possible distinct phases during the Universe’s expansion history. Additionally, we present interesting constraints on the cuscuton-like contribution for the dark energy evolution using a set of homogeneous geometrical observational probes. Finally, based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), we perform a statistical comparison of the cuscuton-like model with $Λ$ $\Lambda$ CDM, and find strong support for our model.

© The Author(s) 2025

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