Early dark energy in k-essence

Early dark energy (EDE) that becomes subdominant around the epoch of matter-radiation equality can be used to ease the Hubble tension. However, there is the theoretical problem of why the energy scale of EDE is in coincidence with that of matter-radiation equality when their physics are completely unrelated. Sakstein and Trodden [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 161301 (2020)] proposed a mechanism to solve this coincidence problem with O(eV)-mass neutrino. In this paper, in order to solve the coincidence problem, we propose a new scenario for EDE in which the onset and ending of EDE arc triggered by the radiationmatter transition. The specific example we study is a k-essence model. The cosmic evolution equations can be recast into a two-dimensional dynamical system, and its main properties are analyzed. Our results suggest that k-essence seems unable to realize the new scenario for EDE. However, an EDE model with a different scenario is realized in k-essence. In this model, the ending of EDE can be triggered by the radiation-matter transition, while the onset depends on the initial conditions of the scalar field. Therefore, the obtained model can only be used to solve half of the coincidence problem. The full resolution in the framework of our initial proposed scenario is worthy of more research.

Automated summary

In an effort to solve the coincidence problem between the energy scale of EDE and matter-radiation equality, a new EDE scenario triggered by radiation-matter transition was proposed. Although k-essence seems unable to realize this new EDE scenario, an EDE model with a different scenario was achieved within the k-essence framework. The study suggests that more research is needed to fully address the coincidence problem in the originally proposed scenario.