Dark energy in hybrid inflation

Abstract

The situation that a scalar field provides the source of the accelerated expansion of the Universe while rolling down its potential is common in both the simple models of the primordial inflation and the quintessence-based dark energy models. Motivated by this point, we address the possibility of causing the current acceleration via the primordial inflation using a simple model based on hybrid inflation. We trigger the onset of the motion of the quintessence field via the waterfall field, and find that the fate of the Universe depends on the true vacuum energy determined by choosing the parameters. We also briefly discuss the variation of the equation of state and the possible implementation of our scenario in supersymmetric theories.