Phantom cosmology provides a unique opportunity to “connect” the phantom-driven (low energy meV scale) dark energy phase to the (high energy grand unified theory scale) inflationary era. This is possible because the energy density increases in phantom cosmology. We present a concrete model where the energy density, but not the scale factor, cycles through phases of standard radiation/matter domination followed by dark energy/inflationary phases, and the pattern repeating itself. An interesting feature of the model is that once we include interactions between the “phantom fluid” and ordinary matter, the big-rip singularity is avoided with the phantom phase naturally giving way to a near exponential inflationary expansion.

• Received 11 August 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.103521