We consider cosmological tests of a scalar-vector-tensor gravitational model, in which the dark energy is included in the total action through a gauge-invariant, electromagnetic type contribution. The ground state of dark energy, corresponding to a constant potential $V$, is a Bose-Einstein type condensate with spontaneously broken U(1) symmetry. In other words, dark energy appears as a massive vector field emerging from a superposition of a massless vector and a scalar field, the latter corresponding to the Goldstone boson. Two particular cosmological models, corresponding to pure electric and pure magnetic type potentials, respectively, are confronted with type IA supernovae and Hubble parameter data. In the electric case, a good fit is obtained along a narrow inclined stripe in the ${\mathrm{\Omega }}_m-{\mathrm{\Omega }}_V$ parameter plane, which includes the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ cold dark matter limit as the best fit. The other points on this admissible region represent superconducting dark energy as a sum of a cosmological constant and a time-evolving contribution. In the magnetic case the cosmological test selects either (i) parameter ranges of the superconducting dark energy allowing for the standard baryonic sector plus dark matter or (ii) a unified superconducting dark matter and dark energy model, additionally including only the baryonic sector.

• Received 3 September 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.123503