Impact of the matter density uncertainty on the dark energy reconstruction

Abstract

In this paper we study the impact of the fractional matter density uncertainty in the reconstruction of the equation of state of dark energy. We consider both standard reconstruction methods, based on the dynamical effect that dark energy has on the expansion of the Universe, as well as non-standard methods, in which the evolution of the dark energy equation of state with redshift is inferred through the variation of fundamental couplings such as the fine structure constant, $\alpha$, or the proton-to-electron mass ratio, $\mu$. We show that the negative impact of the matter density uncertainty in the dark energy reconstruction using varying couplings may be very small compared to standard reconstruction methods. We also briefly discuss other fundamental questions which need to be answered before varying couplings can be successfully used to probe the nature of the dark energy.