Coupled quintessence with a potential from supergravity exhibits sign-changing interaction

Abstract: Quintessence with a potential motivated by supergravity (SUGRA) exhibits several intriguing features. Depending on its initial conditions, it can behave either as dynamical dark energy or effectively as a cosmological constant. Moreover, when quintessence is coupled to dark matter, the effective dark-energy equation of state can cross the phantom divide. In this paper, we test both coupled and uncoupled SUGRA quintessence models using DESI BAO, DES-Dovekie SNIa, and Planck CMB data. We find that current observations strongly favor a coupling between dark energy and dark matter, with the coupling parameter deviating from zero at more than $4σ$. The data also favor the branch of coupled SUGRA quintessence in which the energy transfer between the two dark sectors changes sign, leading to a crossing of the phantom divide by the effective dark-energy equation of state. Interestingly, this coupled SUGRA branch is statistically indistinguishable from dark energy described by the CPL parametrization, with only a very small difference in $χ^2_\mathrm{min}$. Our results suggest that coupled quintessence with a SUGRA potential provides a field-theoretic realization of the evolving dark energy behavior favored by the latest observations.