Mass varying neutrinos with different quintessence potentials

Abstract

The mass-varying neutrino scenario is analyzed for three trial quintessence potentials (Ferreira-Joyce, inverse exponential, and thawing oscillating). The neutrino mass is generated via Yukawa coupling to the scalar field which represents dark energy. The inverse exponential and oscillating potentials are shown to successfully generate the neutrino masses in the range $m \sim 10^{-2}-10^{-3}~$eV and to yield the current dark energy density in the regime of the late-time acceleration of the Universe. Depending on the choice of potentials, the acceleration could occur in two different regimes: (1) the regime of instability, and (2) the stable regime. The first regime of instability is after the Universe underwent a first-order transition and is rolling toward the new stable vacuum. The imaginary sound velocity $c^2_s < 0$ in this regime implies growing fluctuations of the neutrino density (clustering). In the second regime, the Universe smoothly changes its stable states via a continuous transition. Since $c^2_s > 0$, the neutrino density is stable. For all cases the predicted late-time acceleration of the Universe is asymptotically very close to that of the $\Lambda$CDM model. Further extensions of the theory to modify the neutrino sector of the Standard Model and to incorporate inflation are also discussed. It is also shown that in the stable regimes where the neutrino mass is given by the minimum of the thermodynamic potential, the tree-level dynamics of the scalar field is robust with respect to one-loop bosonic and fermionic corrections to the potential.