On detecting interactions in the dark sector with H(z) data

An interesting approach to the cosmological coincidence problem is to allow dark matter and dark energy to interact with each other also nongravitationally. We consider two general Ansätze for such an interaction and appraise their ability to address the coincidence problem. We determine the average accuracy required on the cosmic expansion rate data to distinguish interacting cosmological models from the conventional ΛCDM scenario. We find that among the planned surveys the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope has the best chance to detect an interaction, though at a low significance level. To unambiguously determine the existence of an interaction one must, therefore, combine the said expansion data with other probes. © 2013 American Physical Society.