Cosmological dynamics of the general non-canonical scalar field models

Abstract

Abstract We extend the investigation of cosmological dynamics of the general non-canonical scalar field models by dynamical system techniques for a broad class of potentials and coupling functions. In other words, we do not restrict the analysis to exponential or power-law potentials and coupling functions. This type of investigation helps in understanding the general properties of a class of cosmological models. In order to better understand the phase space of the models, we investigate the various special cases and discuss the stability and viability issues. Performing a detailed stability analysis, we show that it is possible to describe the cosmic history of the universe at the background level namely the early radiation dominated era, intermediate matter dominated era and the late time dark energy domination. Moreover, we find that we can identify a broad class of potentials and coupling functions for which it is possible to get an appealing unified description of dark matter and dark energy. The results obtained here, therefore, enlarge the previous analyses wherein only a specific potential and coupling functions describe the unification of dark sectors. Further, we also observe that a specific scenario can also possibly explain the phenomenon of slow-roll inflationary exit.