Halos of dark energy

Abstract

We investigate the properties of dark energy halos in models with a nonminimal coupling in the dark sector. We show, using a quasistatic approximation, that a coupling of the mass of dark matter particles to a standard quintessence scalar field $\phi$ generally leads to the formation of dark energy concentrations in and around compact dark matter objects. These are associated with regions where scalar field gradients are large and the dark energy equation of state parameter is close to $-1/3$. We find that the energy and radius of a dark energy halo are approximately given by $E_{\rm halo} \sim \boldsymbol{\beta}^2 \varphi \, m$ and $r_{\rm halo} \sim \sqrt{\boldsymbol{\beta} \,\varphi ({R}/{H})}$, where $\varphi=Gm/(R c^2)$, $m$ and $R$ are, respectively, the mass and radius of the associated dark matter object, $\boldsymbol{\beta} = -(8\pi G)^{-1/2} d \ln m/d \phi$ is the nonminimal coupling strength parameter, $H$ is the Hubble parameter, $G$ is the gravitational constant, and $c$ is the speed of light in vacuum. We further show that current observational limits on $\boldsymbol{\beta}$ over a wide redshift range lead to stringent constraints on $E_{\rm halo}/m$ and, therefore, on the impact of dark energy halos on the value of the dark energy equation of state parameter. We also briefly comment on potential backreaction effects that may be associated with the breakdown of the quasistatic approximation and determine the regions of parameter space where such a breakdown might be expected to occur.