Deciphering Coupled Scalar Dark Sectors

Abstract: Coupled dark sector models have gained significant attention, motivated by recent advances in cosmology and the pressing need to address unresolved puzzles. In this work, we study coupled scalar dark sector models inspired by ultraviolet-complete frameworks such as supergravity and string theory. These models involve scalar couplings arising either from their kinetic terms, through a non-trivial field space metric, or from their scalar potential. We demonstrate how these couplings can be elegantly formulated in terms of an interacting vector, a standard tool in coupled dark sector studies, and analyse their distinct cosmological effects using a dynamical systems approach. Using this framework, we further investigate an axio-dilaton system recently explored in the literature, where the dilaton also couples to baryons. Intriguingly, we show that certain kinetic and potential interactions may mimic one another or even cancel out, making them observationally indistinguishable. If such a distinction becomes possible through observational constraints, it could provide valuable insights into the underlying field space metric and its connection to fundamental physics.