The time evolution of cosmological redshift in non-standard dark energy models

Aims. The variation of the expansion rate of the universe with time produces an evolution in the cosmological redshift of distant sources (for example quasars), that might be directly observed (over a decade or so) by future ultra stable, high-resolution spectrographs (such as CODEX) coupled to extremely large telescopes (such as ESO’s ELT). This would open a new window to explore the physical mechanism responsible for the current acceleration of the universe. Methods. We investigate the evolution of cosmological redshift from a variety of non-standard dark energy models, and compare it with simulated data based on realistic assumptions. We perform a Fisher matrix analysis, in order to estimate the expected constraints on the parameters of the models Results. We find that there are interesting prospects for constraining the parameters of non-standard dark energy models and for discriminating among competing candidates.