http://arxiv.org/abs/1810.09474
We present a novel theory of a unified dark sector, where late-time cosmic acceleration emerges from the dark matter superfluid framework. The system is described by a superfluid mixture consisting of two distinguishable states with a small energy gap, such as the ground state and an excited state of dark matter. Given their contact in the superfluid, interaction between those states can happen, converting one state into the other. This long range interaction within the superfluid couples the two superfluid phonon species through a Josephson/Rabi cosine potential. As a consequence of this potential, a new dynamics of late-time accelerated expansion emerges in this system, without the need of dark energy, coming from a universe containing only this two-state DM superfluid. The superfluid nature of the interacting species offers a number of advantages. First, because the phonon kinetic term is non-canonical, the decay constant appearing in the potential can be sub-Planckian, unlike the super-Planckian decay constants required in axion models of dark energy. Second, because the superfluid species are non-relativistic, their sound speeds remain suitably small throughout the evolution. We calculate the expansion history and growth of linear perturbations, and compare the results to $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. For the fiducial parameters studied here, the predicted expansion and growth function are close to those of $\Lambda$CDM, but the difference in the predicted growth rate is significant at late times. The present theory nicely complements the recent proposal of dark matter superfluidity to explain the empirical success of MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) on galactic scales, thus offering a unified framework for dark matter, dark energy, and MOND phenomenology.
E. Ferreira, G. Franzmann, J. Khoury, et. al.
Wed, 24 Oct 18
5/75
Comments: 26 pages, 4 figures