How a brane cosmological constant can trick us into thinking that w < -1

Abstract

Observations exploring the contemporary cosmic acceleration have sparked interest in dark energy models possessing equations of state with w < -1. We review how the cosmic expansion history of a Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) braneworld model with a standard brane cosmological constant can mimic that of ordinary 4-dimensional gravity with w < -1 "phantom" dark energy for observationally relevant redshifts. We reinterpret the effective phantom nature of the dark energy as arising from dynamical-screening of the brane cosmological constant in DGP. This unusual variety of expansion history is thus possible without violating the null-energy condition, without ghosts and without any big rip, in a model which seems no more contrived than most evolving dark energy models. We indicate ways by which one may observationally test this effective w < -1 possibility, and differentiate it from ``ordinary'' phantom dark-energy.