Observational constraints on generalised axion-like potentials for the late Universe

Understand

Axions have emerged as compelling candidates for describing the dark sector of the Universe.

• In this work, we explore quintessence models inspired by axion-like potentials as a dynamical alternative to the cosmological constant.
• These models naturally exhibit a tracking behaviour, reducing the need for fine-tuned initial conditions.
• We perform a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis on a complete cosmological dataset of Planck PR4 cosmic microwave background (CMB), DESI DR1 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), Pantheon+ type Ia supernovae, low-$z$ Cepheid anchors, and DES Y1 large scale structure measurement.