Probing the Vacuum Decay Hypothesis with Growth Function Data

Abstract

In this paper, we present a method to probe the vacuum decay hypothesis by searching for deviations of the uncoupled dark matter density evolution formula. The method consists of expanding the dark matter density in a Taylor series and then comparing the series coefficients obtained from the observational analysis with its uncoupled values. We use the growth rate data to put constraints on the series coefficients. The results obtained are consistent with the Λ CDM model, but it is shown that the possibility of vacuum decay cannot be ruled out by current growth rate data.

Keywords

• cosmological constant
• dark matter
• vacuum decay
• growth function