$Om$ diagnostic applied to scalar field models and slowing down of cosmic acceleration

Abstract: We apply the $Om$ diagnostic to models for dark energy based on scalar fields. In case of the power law potentials, we demonstrate the possibility of slowing down the expansion of the Universe around the present epoch for a specific range in the parameter space. For these models, we also examine the issues concerning the age of Universe. We use the $Om$ diagnostic to distinguish the $\Lambda$CDM model from non minimally coupled scalar field, phantom field and generic quintessence models. Our study shows that the $Om$ has zero, positive and negative curvatures for $\Lambda$CDM, phantom and quintessence models respectively. We use an integrated data base (SN+Hubble+BAO+CMB) for bservational analysis and demonstrate that $Om$ is a useful diagnostic to apply to observational data.