Speaker
Description
The late-time acceleration of the Universe's expansion is well established observationally, yet the nature of the dark energy component driving it remains an open question. In this talk, I will present a cosmological model in which dark energy can be described by a minimally coupled three-form field with a Gaussian self-interaction potential. Such a field naturally generates an effective negative pressure and, depending on the shape of the potential, can reproduce a range of interesting behaviours within a single theoretical framework, including regimes close to a cosmological constant and phantom evolution. I will present constraints on the model parameters derived from current background-level data, including CMB, BAO, type Ia supernovae, cosmic chronometers and gamma-ray bursts, and discuss what these results indicate about its viability as an alternative description of late-time accelerated expansion.