Ghost condensates and pure kinetic $k$-essence condensates in presence of field-fluid non-minimal coupling in the dark sector

Abstract

In this article we try to find out the conditions when a ghost field in conjunction with a barotropic fluid produces a stable accelerating expansion phase of the universe. It is seen that in many cases the ghost field produces a condensate and drives the fluid energy density to zero in the final accelerating phase, but there can be other possibilities. We have shown that a pure kinetic $k$-essence field (which is not a ghost field) interacting with a fluid can also form an interaction induced condensate and produce a stable accelerating phase of the universe. In the latter case the fluid energy density does not vanish in the stable phase.

Comments: Corrected and modified version. 25 pages, Accepted for publication in Universe