Dynamics of perfect fluid unified dark energy models

In this paper, we show that a one‐to‐one correspondence exists between any dark energy model and an equivalent (from a cosmological point of view, in the absence of perturbations) quartessence model in which dark matter and dark energy are described by a single perfect fluid. We further show that if the density fluctuations are small, the evolution of the sound speed squared, c 2 s , is fully coupled to the evolution of the scalefactor and that the transition from the dark matter to the dark energy dominated epoch is faster (slower) than in a standard Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model if c 2 s > 0 ( c 2 s < 0) . In particular, we show that the mapping of the simplest quintessence scenario with constant w Q ≡ p Q /ρ Q into a unified dark energy model requires c 2 s < 0 at the present time (if w Q > −1) contrasting to the Chaplygin gas scenario where one has c 2 s > 0 . However, we show that non‐linear effects severely complicate the analysis, in particular rendering linear results invalid even on large cosmological scales. Although a detailed analysis of non‐linear effects requires solving the full Einstein field equations, some general properties can be understood in simple terms. In particular, we find that in the context of Chaplygin gas models the transition from the dark matter to the dark energy dominated era may be anticipated with respect to linear expectations leading to a background evolution similar to that of standard ΛCDM models. On the other hand, in models with c 2 s > 0 the expected transition from the decelerating to the accelerating phase may never happen.