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arXiv · 2508.01759

Resolving the Planck-DESI tension by nonminimally coupled quintessence

Jia-Qi Wang·Rong-Gen Cai·Zong-Kuan Guo·Shao-Jiang Wang
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Abstract

The Planck measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has established the $\Lambda$-cold-dark-matter ($\Lambda$CDM) model as the concordant model along with other observations. However, recent measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) have renewed the matter fraction $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$ tension between Planck-$\Lambda$CDM and DESI-$\Lambda$CDM. Directly reconciling this CMB-BAO tension with a dynamical DE in Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) parametrization seems to imply a crossing of the equation-of-state (EOS) through $w=-1$ at low redshifts. In this paper, we resolve this $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$ tension by allowing for the DM nonminimally coupled to gravity via a quintessence field. This non-minimal coupling is preferred over $3\sigma$ confidence level. Consequently, even though the usual effective EOS of the coupled quintessence apart from the standard CDM part never crosses but always is above $w=-1$, a misidentification with the $w_0w_a$CDM model would exactly fake such a crossing behavior, and the tensions on neutrino mass and growth rate in the $\Lambda$CDM model are also relieved in our model as a result of the resolved $\Omega_\mathrm{m}$ tension.

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Jia-Qi Wang, Rong-Gen Cai, Zong-Kuan Guo, Shao-Jiang Wang. 2025-08-03. Resolving the Planck-DESI tension by nonminimally coupled quintessence. https://doi.org/10.1103/r6cx-8ghz

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