Interactions in the dark sector: intrinsic entropy couplings

arXiv:2606.16574 · astro-ph.CO, gr-qc · Submitted 2026-06-15 · Read on arXiv

Elsa M. Teixeira

astro-ph.CO, gr-qc

Submitted: 2026-06-15

Comments: 5 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the 60th Rencontres de Moriond on Cosmology: Moriond Cosmology 2026

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We present a new class of interacting dark sector models in which the intrinsic entropy of a dark matter fluid couples to a scalar field describing dark energy.

Terminology

Abstract

We present a new class of interacting dark sector models in which the intrinsic entropy of a dark matter fluid couples to a scalar field describing dark energy. These interactions are constructed within a covariant Lagrangian framework, including algebraic and derivative entropy couplings, effectively leading to pure momentum exchange in the dark sector. A key feature is that the background cosmology remains unchanged and therefore indistinguishable from CDM or uncoupled quintessence. However, at the level of the linear perturbations, the dark matter Euler equation exhibits scale-dependent contributions, while the continuity equation is unmodified. We show that these classes of models are compatible with current CMB constraints and can potentially produce observable signatures in large-scale structure.

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