Cosmological constraints on a unified dark matter-energy scalar field model with fast transition

Abstract

We test the viability of a single fluid cosmological model containing a transition from a dark-matter-like regime to a dark-energy-like regime. The fluid is a k-essence scalar field with a well-defined Lagrangian. We constrain its model parameters with a combination of geometric probes and conclude that the evidence for this model is similar to the evidence for $\Lambda$CDM. In addition, we find a lower bound for the rapidity of the transition, implying that fast transitions are favored with respect to slow ones even at background level.