Voids of dark energy

Abstract

We investigate the clustering properties of a dynamical dark energy component. In a cosmic mix of a pressureless fluid and a light scalar field, we follow the linear evolution of spherical matter perturbations. We find that the scalar field tends to form underdensities in response to the gravitationally collapsing matter. We thoroughly investigate these voids for a variety of initial conditions, explain the physics behind their formation and consider possible observational implications. Detection of dark energy voids will clearly rule out the cosmological constant as the main source of the present acceleration.