We discuss an instability in a large class of models where dark energy is coupled to matter. In these models the mass of the scalar field is much larger than the expansion rate of the Universe. We find models in which this instability is absent, and show that these models generically predict an apparent equation of state for dark energy smaller than $-1$, i.e., superacceleration. These models have no acausal behavior or ghosts.

• Received 16 February 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.75.103504