Quintessential Difficulties
arXiv:hep-ph/9811375 · doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(99)00657-7
Abstract
An alternative to a cosmological constant is quintessence, defined as a slowly-varying scalar field potential V(Ï). If quintessence is observationally significant, an epoch of inflation is beginning at the present epoch, with Ïthe slowly-rolling inflaton field. In contrast with ordinary inflation, quintessence seems to require extreme fine tuning of the potential V(Ï). The degree of fine-tuning is quantified in various cases.
7 pages LaTeX. Revised to be more pedagogical; results unchanged