Slow-roll freezing quintessence

Understand

We examine the evolution of quintessence models with potentials satisfying (V'/V)^2<<1 and V&#34;/V<<1, in the case where the initial field velocity is nonzero.

• We derive an analytic approximation for the evolution of the equation of state parameter, w, for the quintessence field.
• We show that such models are characterized by an initial rapid freezing phase, in which the equation of state parameter w decreases with time, followed by slow thawing evolution, for which w increases with time.
• These models resemble constant-V models at early times but diverge at late times.