Dark energy and the Boomerang data
Abstract
Description
The recent high-quality Boomerang data allow to test many competing cosmological models. Here I present a seven-parameter likelihood analysis of dark energy models with exponential potential and explicit coupling to dark matter. Such a model is conformally equivalent to a scalar field with non-minimal coupling to gravity. So far, the constraints on a dark energy - dark matter coupling were extremely weak. The Boomerang data constrain the dimensionless coupling $β$ to be smaller than 0.1, an order of magnitude better than previous limits. In terms of the constant $ξ$ of non-minimally coupled theories, this amounts to $ξ<0.01.$
On the other hand, Boomerang has not enough sensitivity to put constraints on the potential slope.
seven pages, two figures. Minor revision to match version accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett
seven pages, two figures. Minor revision to match version accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett