Coupled oscillators as models of quintom dark energy

We investigate quintom cosmology in FRW universes using isomorphic models consisting of three coupled oscillators, one of which carries negative kinetic energy. In particular, we examine the cosmological paradigms of minimally-coupled massless quintom, of two conformally-coupled massive scalars and of conformally-coupled massive quintom, and we obtain their qualitative characteristics as well as their quantitative asymptotic behavior. For open OF flat geometries, we find that, independently of the specific initial conditions, the universe is always led to an eternal expansion. (c) 2008 Elsevier BY. All rights reserved.