For example, choose . A schematic solution can join the pressureless matter law to the phantom-dominated law . It begins at the Big Bang, bends down during matter domination, changes to accelerated expansion when phantom energy takes over, and has a vertical asymptote at the finite Big Rip time .
Figure 1.
Cosmic expansion from the matter era to phantom-energy domination
. Details.
Separate stress-energy conservation and the constant equation-of-state parameter give the constant-equation-of-state density scaling
Because , the phantom energy density grows with the scale factor, whereas the pressureless matter density decays as . Phantom energy therefore dominates at late times. With , the Friedmann equation becomes
Integrating and absorbing the integration constant into the finite time gives
The exponent is negative, so as . This is a Big Rip.
Phantom energy Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
A fluid with grows in density during expansion and can produce a finite-time Big Rip singularity.