Dark energy after DESI DR2: Observational status, reconstructions, and physical models
Phys. Rev. D 113, 103540 – Published 26 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dqxw-yp1j
Abstract
We review late-time cosmic acceleration after DESI Data Release 2 (DR2), emphasizing the interplay between Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), anisotropic baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), cosmic microwave background (CMB) calibration, and perturbation-sensitive probes (redshift-space distortions and weak lensing). DESI DR2 delivers percent-level BAO distance ratios over , including a -forest anchor at . In CMB-calibrated combinations, flat exhibits a mild parameter mismatch, while allowing evolving dark energy (e.g., Chevallier-Polarski-Linder ) can improve the fit; the preference is dataset-dependent and is particularly sensitive to redshift-dependent SN calibration/selection residuals at the level. To sharpen likelihood-level interpretation, we provide two diagnostics: (i) a BAO-shape observable independent of the drag-epoch sound horizon , namely the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) combination , constructed directly from published with covariance propagation; (ii) a linear-response map from SN Hubble-diagram systematics to induced biases in , yielding an explicit calibration requirement for DESI-era claims of evolving . We synthesize parametric and nonparametric reconstructions of and and map the resulting phenomenology to microphysical dark-energy and modified-gravity models subject to perturbation stability and gravitational-wave propagation constraints.