Quintessence and False Vacuum: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

We study a quintessence field initially trapped in a metastable false vacuum state using the recently proposed string swampland criteria. The false vacuum has non-zero vacuum energy and could drive an exponential expansion if not coupled with a quintessence field. Upon decay of the false vacuum, the quintessence field is released and begins to evolve. We assumed conditions where the scalar potential gradient must satisfy \(\nabla V_{\text{eff}} > A\), characterized by a pressure term approximately \(\Delta p / p > \mathcal {O} (\hbar)\). We then derived the effective potential of the scalar with an upper bound on the coupling constant \(\lambda < 0.6\). Constraints on \(V_{\text{eff}}\) reveal a slow-roll behavior for \(0.1 > \lambda > -0.04\) in the dark energy equation of state (EoS), within the range of \(-0.8 < w_0 < -0.4\), stabilizing at points between \(1 < A < 2.718\). Our results suggest that while a stable scalar potential decoupled from its initial meta-stable state can lead to a more stable universe, any deviation in parameter orders could potentially violate the swampland criteria if the effective potential grows too rapidly. However, with the addition of an interaction term, we can counterbalance forces due to potential gradients, leading to a stable scalar potential when these forces are in equilibrium.