Reconstructing quintessence

We present an effective-field-theory-based reconstruction of quintessence models of dark energy directly from cosmological data. We show that current cosmological data possess enough constraining power to test several quintessence model properties for redshifts z is an element of [0, 1.5] with no assumptions about the behavior of the scalar field potential. We use measurements of the cosmic microwave background, supernova distances, and the clustering and lensing of galaxies to constrain the evolution of the dark energy equation of state, swampland conjectures, the shape of the scalar field reconstructed potential, and the structure of its phase space. The standard cosmological model still remains favored by data and, within quintessence models, deviations from its expansion history are bounded to be below the 10% level at 95% confidence at any redshift below z = 1.5.

Automated summary

An effective-field-theory-based reconstruction of quintessence models of dark energy from cosmological data is presented, showing that current data has enough power to test various quintessence model properties without assuming the behavior of the scalar field potential. The standard cosmological model remains favored by data and deviations from its expansion history in quintessence models are bounded to be below 10% at 95% confidence level.