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Euclid: Constraining dark energy coupled to electromagnetism using astrophysical and laboratory data

R. Østensen, M. Martinelli, C. J. A. P. Martins, S. Nesseris, I. Tutusaus, A. Blanchard, S. Camera, C. Carbone, S. Casas, V. Pettorino, Z. Sakr, V. Yankelevich, D. Sapone, A. Amara, N. Auricchio, C. Bodendorf, D. Bonino, E. Branchini, V. Capobianco, J. Carretero, M. Castellano, S. Cavuoti, A. Cimatti, R. Cledassou, L. Corcione, A. Costille, H. Degaudenzi, M. Douspis, F. Dubath, S. Dusini, A. Ealet, S. Ferriol, M. Frailis, E. Franceschi, B. Garilli, C. Giocoli, A. Grazian, F. Grupp, S. V. H. Haugan, W. A. Holmes, F. Hormuth, K. Jahnke, A. Kiessling, M. Kümmel, M. Kunz, H. Kurki-Suonio, S. Ligori, P. B. Lilje, I. Lloro, O. Mansutti, O. Marggraf, K. Markovic, R. Massey, M. Meneghetti, G. Meylan, L. Moscardini, S. Niemi, C. Padilla, S. Paltani, F. Pasian, K. Pedersen, S. Pires, M. Poncet, L. A. Popa, F. Raison, R. Rebolo López, J. D. Rhodes, M. Roncarelli, E. Rossetti, R. Saglia, A. Secroun, G. Seidel, S. Serrano, C. Sirignano, G. Sirri, J.-L. Starck, D. Tavagnacco, A. N. Taylor, I. Tereno, R. Toledo-Moreo, L. Valenziano, Y. Wang, G. Zamorani, J. Zoubian, M. Baldi, M. Brescia, G. Congedo, L. Conversi, Y. Copin, G. Fabbian, R. Farinelli, E. Medinaceli, S. Mei, G. Polenta, E. Romelli, T. Vassallo

Abstract
In physically realistic, scalar-field-based dynamical dark energy models (including, e.g., quintessence), one naturally expects the scalar field to couple to the rest of the model’s degrees of freedom. In particular, a coupling to the electromagnetic sector leads to a time (redshift) dependence in the fine-structure constant and a violation of the weak equivalence principle. Here we extend the previous Euclid forecast constraints on dark energy models to this enlarged (but physically more realistic) parameter space, and forecast how well Euclid, together with high-resolution spectroscopic data and local experiments, can constrain these models. Our analysis combines simulated Euclid data products with astrophysical measurements of the fine-structure constant, α, and local experimental constraints, and it includes both parametric and non-parametric methods. For the astrophysical measurements of α, we consider both the currently available data and a simulated dataset representative of Extremely Large Telescope measurements that are expected to be available in the 2030s. Our parametric analysis shows that in the latter case, the inclusion of astrophysical and local data improves the Euclid dark energy figure of merit by between 8% and 26%, depending on the correct fiducial model, with the improvements being larger in the null case where the fiducial coupling to the electromagnetic sector is vanishing. These improvements would be smaller with the current astrophysical data. Moreover, we illustrate how a genetic algorithms based reconstruction provides a null test for the presence of the coupling. Our results highlight the importance of complementing surveys like Euclid with external data products, in order to accurately test the wider parameter spaces of physically motivated paradigms.

Keywords
cosmology: observations / cosmological parameters / space vehicles: instruments / methods: data analysis / methods: statistical / surveys

Notes
This paper is published on behalf of the Euclid Consortium.

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume 654, Article Number A148, Number of pages 14
2021 October

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia