A quintessential introduction to dark energy

Paul J. Steinhardt

doi:10.1098/rsta.2003.1290

A quintessential introduction to dark energy

Paul J. Steinhardt

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

129 Scopus citations

Abstract

Most of the energy in the Universe consists of some form of dark energy that is gravitationally self-repulsive and that is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. The possible candidates are a vacuum energy density (or, equivalently, a cosmological constant) and quintessence, a time-evolving, spatially inhomogeneous component with negative pressure. In this review, we focus on quintessence and ideas on how it might solve the cosmic coincidence problem, how it might be distinguished observationally from a cosmological constant, and how it may affect the overall cosmic history of the Universe.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2497-2513
Number of pages	17
Journal	Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Volume	361
Issue number	1812
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2003.1290
State	Published - Nov 15 2003

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Engineering
General Physics and Astronomy
General Mathematics

Keywords

Cyclic models
Dark energy
K-essence
Microwave background
Quintessence
Supernovae

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10.1098/rsta.2003.1290

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KW - Supernovae

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A quintessential introduction to dark energy

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

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