Quantum Gravity Meets DESI: Dynamical Dark Energy in Light of the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture

Understand

Recent DESI DR2 observations indicate that dark energy has crossed from phantom to quintessence regime, a behavior known as the quintom-B realization.

• In this work we constrain dynamical dark energy and modified gravity using the swampland Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), which forbids eternal acceleration since in this case any trans-Planckian quantum fluctuation would eventually stretch beyond the Hubble radius, breaking the applicability of any effective field theory and cosmological techniques.
• By combining DESI DR2 data with the TCC criterion, we impose tight constraints on the dark energy equation of state and its parameter space in scenarios such as the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder, Barboza-Alcaniz, Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan, EXP and LOG parameterizations, significantly constraining the quintom-A behavior.
• Also we examine models within the framework of $f(T)$ and $f(Q)$ modified gravity theories, demonstrating that TCC is very powerful to constrain or exclude them, a result that indicates the necessity to consider infrared modifications on General Relativity apart from the usual ultraviolet ones.