Dark Matter and Dark Energy from a single scalar field and CMB data

Abstract

Axions are likely to be the Dark Matter (DM) that cosmological data require. They arise in the Peccei Quinn solution of the strong CP problem. In a previous work we showed that their model has a simple and natural generalization which yields also Dark Energy (DE), in fair proportions, without tuning any parameter: DM and DE arise from a single scalar field and are weakly coupled in the present era. In this paper we extend the analysis of this dual-axion cosmology and fit it to WMAP data, by using a Markov chain technique. We find that LCDM, dynamical DE with a SUGRA potential, DE with a SUGRA potential and a constant DE-DM coupling, as well as the dual-axion model with a SUGRA potential, fit data with a similar accuracy. The best-fit parameters are however fairly different, although consistency is mostly recovered at the 2-sigma level. A peculiarity of the dual-axion model with SUGRA potential is to cause more stringent constraints on most parameters and to favor high values of the Hubble parameter.