COSMO In the literature: open

Why are the dark energy and matter densities comparable today?

In plain words

Matter thins out as the universe expands while vacuum energy does not, so their ratio changes enormously over cosmic history. It happens to be close to one now, when observers exist.

Precise statement

With $\rho_m \sim a^{-3}$ and a constant $\rho_\Lambda$, the ratio $r = \rho_\Lambda / \rho_m = (\Omega_\Lambda / \Omega_m) a^3$ is about 2.2 today and was about $2e-3$ at $a = 0.1$. Find a mechanism (tracker or coupled dark energy, or anthropic selection with an explicitly defined measure) that predicts $r$ of order one at the epoch when observers form without tuning its parameters, while staying consistent with the measured $w(z)$.

What would settle it

A model that predicts r of order one at the observed epoch and makes a further prediction for w(z) or for dark-sector couplings that is later confirmed.

See also