Some impacts of quintessence models on cosmic structure formation

Some physical imprints of quintessence scalar fields on dark matter (DM) clustering are illustrated, and a comparison with the concordance model ΛCDM is highlighted. First, we estimate the cosmological parameters for two quintessence models, based on scalar fields rolling down the Ratra‐Peebles or Sugra potential, by a statistical analysis of the Hubble diagram of type Ia supernovae. Then, the effect of these realistic dark energy models on large‐scale DM clustering is established through N‐body simulations. Various effects like large‐scale distribution of DM, cluster mass function and halos internal velocities are illustrated. It is found that realistic dark energy models lead to quite different DM clustering, due to a combination of the variation of the equation of state and differences in the cosmological parameters, even at z = 0. This conclusion contradicts other works in the recent litterature and the importance of considering more realistic models in studying the impact of quintessence on structure formation is highlighted.