arXiv2026
Metric-affine gravity provides a natural geometric framework in which spacetime curvature, torsion, and non-metricity are treated as independent degrees of freedom, leading to novel cosmological dynamics beyond General Relativity. A generic consequence of such theories is the emergence of effective interactions among the cosmological fluids, even in the absence of explicit phenomenological couplings. Interestingly, the above happens while the Standard Model of Particle physics remains unmodified. In this work, we investigate interacting cosmological models that arise from metric-affine gravity and analyze their implications for the background evolution of the Universe. We derive the modified continuity equations governing the matter, radiation, and dark-energy components, highlighting the geometric origin of energy exchange in the dark sector. We discuss how these interactions modify the expansion history and can effectively mimic evolving dark-energy behavior. The resulting cosmological scenarios are confronted with the most recent observational data from Type Ia Supernovae (Pantheon+), Cosmic Chronometers, and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (DESI DR2). Moreover, using model selection criteria, e.g., Akaike Information Criterion, Bayesian Information Criterion and the Bayesian Evidence, we compare the aforementioned models against the standard $Λ$CDM model. We find that the proposed framework performs slightly better than $ΛCDM$, in the light of the data sets considered here. Our analysis demonstrates that metric-affine-induced interactions constitute a viable and theoretically motivated alternative for the description of the Universe.