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Revisiting observational constraints on coupled exponential quintessence with energy and momentum transfers: Degeneracy with massive neutrinos

Jose Beltrán Jiménez1,2,3,*, Kiyotomo Ichiki4,5,6,†, Xiaolin Liu7,6,8,‡, Florencia Anabella Teppa Pannia9,2,3,§, and Shinji Tsujikawa10,∥

  • *Contact author: jose.beltran@usal.es
  • †Contact author: ichiki.kiyotomo.a9@f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
  • ‡Contact author: shallyn.liu@foxmail.com
  • §Contact author: fa.teppa.pannia@upm.es
  • ∥Contact author: tsujikawa@waseda.jp
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 023563 – Published 28 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/mmsk-z6hr

Abstract

We investigate the impact of massive neutrinos on cosmological models in which dark energy, described by a quintessence scalar field ϕ with an exponential potential, interacts with dark matter through both energy and momentum transfers. Previous analyses have shown that the inclusion of low-redshift data tends to favor the detection of a pure momentum transfer between the dark sectors, consistent with the fact that such a transfer generically suppresses the growth of cosmic structures. Since massive neutrinos also reduce matter clustering, a potential degeneracy between the interaction parameters and the neutrino mass may arise. After updating the observational constraints on the model parameters obtained in earlier studies, we investigate the effect of allowing the neutrino mass to vary. We find that the detection of momentum transfer degrades once massive neutrinos are included. This occurs because a new degeneracy emerges between the neutrino mass and the parameter governing the energy exchange between dark energy and dark matter. Our findings differ from previous results in the literature, where the detection of momentum transfer was reported to be robust against varying neutrino masses. This suggests that the robustness of such detections depends on the underlying model and should therefore be carefully reassessed for each specific interacting scenario.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 023563– Published 28 July, 2026
  • Received 20 March 2026
  • Accepted 17 June 2026
Article part of CHORUS
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