Linear Density Perturbations in Multifield Coupled Quintessence

Abstract

We study the behaviour of linear perturbations in multifield coupled quintessence models. Using gauge invariant linear cosmological perturbation theory we provide the full set of governing equations for this class of models, and solve the system numerically. We apply the numerical code to generate growth functions for various examples, and compare these both to the standard $\Lambda$CDM model and to current and future observational bounds. Finally, we examine the applicability of the "small scale approximation", often used to calculate growth functions in quintessence models, in light of upcoming experiments such as SKA and Euclid. We find the deviation of the full equation results for large k modes from the approximation exceeds the experimental uncertainty for these future surveys. The numerical code, PYESSENCE, written in Python will be publicly available.