We consider the cosmological dynamics of a scalar field in a potential with multiple troughs and peaks. We show that the dynamics of the scalar field will evolve from light dark matter–like behavior (such as that of a light axion) to a combination of heavy dark matter–like and dark energy–like behavior. We discuss the phenomenology of such a model, explaining how it can give rise to the cosmological constant as well as how it can decouple the dark sector densities between the time of recombination and today, for both the homogeneous background and perturbations. The final form of the dark matter is axionlike, but with abundance and primordial isocurvature modes taking very different values from traditional, axionic, dark matter.

• Received 1 February 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.121301