Accelerating scaling solutions from dark matter particle creation
This article opens new window to obtain accelerating scaling attractors without any need of dark energy.
Key points
- Focus: This article opens new window to obtain accelerating scaling attractors without any need of dark energy
- Editorial reading: provisional result, not yet formally peer reviewed.
This article opens new window to obtain accelerating scaling attractors without any need of dark energy. We study cosmological dynamics in a two-fluid system where pressureless dark matter undergoes adiabatic particle creation and. The new analysis still awaits peer review, but it already lays out the central claim clearly.
The significance lies in cosmology operates at the edge of what current instruments can measure, where systematic errors and model assumptions are never trivial. Small discrepancies between independent measurements have historically pointed toward missing physics rather than simple calibration errors, and the ongoing tension in the Hubble constant is a live example of how a persistent disagreement between methods can reshape the theoretical landscape. Each new dataset that approaches this territory with independent systematics adds real information to a problem that has resisted easy resolution for more than a decade. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. ArXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community. We study cosmological dynamics in a two-fluid system where pressureless dark matter (DM) undergoes adiabatic particle creation and exchanges energy with a barotropic fluid.
Considering six widely used interaction prescriptions, we formulate the corresponding autonomous systems in a compact phase space and perform a unified dynamical analysis. We find that accelerating scaling attractors, namely late-time states where both fluids coexist with fixed energy fractions, arise only when the interaction is controlled by the.
Such attractors appear in the global and local DM-based interactions, and in the global mixed case, but are entirely absent when the interaction depends on the second fluid or on. These results clarify the unique conditions under which matter creation can mimic dark-energy-like behaviour without introducing a dark-energy component.
The relevance goes beyond one dataset because even small shifts in measured parameters can matter when the field is testing the limits of the standard cosmological model. The Lambda-CDM framework describes the observable universe with remarkable economy, but its success rests on two components, dark matter and dark energy, whose physical nature remains entirely unknown. Any credible measurement that tightens or loosens the constraints on those components moves the entire theoretical enterprise forward, regardless of whether the immediate result looks dramatic on its own terms.
Because this is still a preprint, the result should be read with genuine interest and proportionate caution. Peer review is not a guarantee of correctness, but it is a process that forces authors to respond to technical criticism from specialists who have no stake in a particular outcome. Preprints that survive that process, often with substantive revisions, emerge with a stronger evidential base than the version that first appeared. Until that stage is complete, the responsible reading keeps uncertainty explicitly visible rather than treating the claims as established findings.
The next step is to see whether the effect survives when independent surveys, different calibration strategies and tighter control of systematic uncertainties enter the picture. Programmes such as Euclid, DESI and the Rubin Observatory will deliver datasets over the next several years that cover the same parameter space with largely independent methods. If the current signal persists through those tests, its theoretical implications will become impossible to set aside. Until peer review and independent follow-up address those open questions, skepticism is not a failure of appreciation for the work; it is part of how science decides what to keep.
Original source: arXiv Cosmology