Abstract
The role of the quintessence field as a probable candidate for the repulsive dark energy, the conditions for tracking and the requisites for tracker fields are examined. The concept of “integrated tracking” is introduced and a new criterion for the existence of tracker potentials is derived assuming monotonic increase in the scalar energy density parameter with the evolution of the universe as suggested by the astrophysical constraints. It provides a technique to investigate generic potentials of the tracker fields. The general properties of the tracker fields are discussed and their behavior with respect to the tracking parameter is analyzed. It is shown that the tracker fields around the limiting value give the best fit with the observational constraints.
- Received 1 June 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.63.103504
©2001 American Physical Society