The Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and the French Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de l'Innovation (MESRI) announced the results of the Programme for Cooperation in Science between Portugal and France for the 2022-2023 period.
The project "Aspects of Dark Interactions in the Early Universe" (ADIEU) led by the COSTAR/CENTRA member and FCT Researcher Javier Rubio is one of the funded projects. This funding will facilitate the mobility of the involved French and Portuguese teams for a maximum duration of 24 months, with an active participation of PhD students. The main goal of the ADIEU project is to investigate the generic implications of dark energy-dark matter interactions in the early Universe. By considering a scalar-tensor framework involving conformal and disformal couplings, the team will aim to construct a general family of coupled quintessence models leading to scaling solutions during radiation domination and able to enhance the growth of perturbations prior to matter-radiation equality. Aspects such as virialization and potential emission of gravitational waves by the resulting structures will be considered.