Testing models of interaction between dark energy and dark matter

Abstract

The current observations of the Universe point to the existence of new material components or modifications of the laws of gravitation. These unknown components, called dark matter and dark energy, constitute one of the central problems in Cosmology. After all, these questions deal with the material content and laws of the Universe. The standard model, Lambda-CDM, is the simplest one which is able to fit the observational data. However, it suffers from severe theoretical problems. To obtain alternatives to the standard model, several proposals appeared in the literature trying to build models theoretically and observationally viable. Among them an interest possibility is considering that dark matter and dark energy interact with each other. We intend to investigate several interacting models and test them with new observational techniques and data. This will not only test the possibility of an interaction, but improve our knowledge of the nature of dark matter and dark energy. (AU)