Hao Wang, Yun-Song Piao

Inspired by the Swampland Distance Conjecture, we investigate the cosmological implications of a fractional coupling between dark matter (DM) and early dark energy (EDE) in light of the recent DESI DR2 BAO data. We use a conditional normalizing flow network to efficiently sample the high-dimensional parameter space, and perform a joint analysis of Planck CMB data, DESI DR2 BAO, PantheonPlus supernovae and SH0ES. We find that the detailed construction of the EDE potential beyond the mere existence of an EDE component possibly alter cosmological constraints on late-time dark energy when the coupling between DM and EDE is considered.