Disformal couplings in a $\Lambda$CDM background cosmology.

While the accelerated cosmological expansion suggests the presence of a dark energy component, the possibility of its interaction with other fluid components is not entirely ruled out. We investigate the cosmological dynamics of coupled quintessence (where the quintessence couples and interacts with a generic fluid) in a disformal framework. The novelty of this work is: (i) extend the idea of coupled quintessence mimicking the cosmological constant with an uncoupled fluid, by including a disformal coupling, and (ii) to bring these conformal and disformal couplings with a LCDM background, to a dynamical system analysis. Using this approach, the quintessence potential does not have to be specified. Three scenarios are studied. Scenario I consists of a pressureless fluid (e.g dark matter), which is coupled to quintessence, and both fluids are mimicking exactly a LCDM background. Scenario II consists of a relativistic fluid, which is coupled to quintessence and both fluids are also mimicking exactly the LCDM background. Scenario III consists of a relativistic fluid (e.g. neutrinos), which is coupled to quintessence and both fluids are mimicking a background with a cosmological constant and uncoupled radiation. The expansion history of the coupled quintessence is investigated for scenario I, which confirms that the mass scale of the quintessence influences the disformal characteristics of the dynamical system, which is portrayed by the evolution of an effective conformal coupling.