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In this first paper we discuss the linear theory and the background evolution of a new class of models we dub SCDEW: Strongly Coupled DE, plus WDM. In these models, WDM dominates today's matter density; like baryons, WDM is uncoupled. Dark energy is a scalar field Φ; its coupling to ancillary cold dark matter (CDM), whose today's density is <<1 per cent, is an essential model feature. Such coupling, in fact, allows the formation of cosmic structures, in spite of very low WDM particle masses (~100 eV). SCDEW models yield cosmic microwave background and linear large scale features substantially undistinguishable from ΛCDM, but thanks to the very low WDM masses they strongly alleviate ΛCDM issues on small scales, as confirmed via numerical simulations in the second associated paper. Moreover SCDEW cosmologies significantly ease the coincidence and fine tuning problems of ΛCDM and, by using a field theory approach, we also outline possible links with inflationary models. We also discuss a possible fading of the coupling at low redshifts which prevents non-linearities on the CDM component to cause computational problems. The (possible) low-z coupling suppression, its mechanism, and its consequences are however still open questions - not necessarily problems - for SCDEW models. The coupling intensity and the WDM particle mass, although being extra parameters in respect to ΛCDM, are found to be substantially constrained a priori so that, if SCDEW is the underlying cosmology, we expect most data to fit also ΛCDM predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this first paper we discuss the linear theory and the background evolution of a new class of models we dub SCDEW: Strongly Coupled DE, plus WDM. In these models, WDM dominates today's matter density; like baryons, WDM is uncoupled. Dark energy is a scalar field $ ; its coupling to ancillary cold dark matter (CDM), whose today's density is ≪1 percent, is an essential model feature. Such coupling, in fact, allows the formation of cosmic structures, in spite of very low WDM particle masses (~100 eV). SCDEW models yield cosmic microwave background and linear large scale features substantially undistinguishable from ACDM, but thanks to the very low WDM masses they strongly alleviate ACDM issues on small scales, as confirmed via numerical simulations in the second associated paper. Moreover SCDEW cosmologies significantly ease the coincidence and fine tuning problems of ACDM and, by using a field theory approach, we also outline possible links with inflationary models. We also discuss a possible fading of the coupling at low redshifts which prevents non-linearities on the CDM component to cause computational problems. The (possible) low-z coupling suppression, its mechanism, and its consequences are however still open questions - not necessarily problems - for SCDEW models. The coupling intensity and the WDM particle mass, although being extra parameters in respect to ACDM, are found to be substantially constrained a priori so that, if SCDEW is the underlying cosmology, we expect most data to fit also ACDM predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an exhaustive analysis of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect in the context of coupled dark energy cosmologies where a component of massive neutrinos is also present. We focus on the effects of both the coupling between dark matter and dark energy and of the neutrino mass on the cross-correlation between galaxy/quasar distributions and ISW effect. We provide a simple expression to appropriately rescale the galaxy bias when comparing different cosmologies. Theoretical predictions of the cross-correlation function are then compared with observational data. We find that, while it is not possible to distinguish among the models at low redshifts, discrepancies between coupled models and ΛACDM increase with z. In spite of this, current data alone does not seem able to distinguish between coupled models and ΛCDM. However, we show that upcoming galaxy surveys will permit tomographic analysis that will allow us to better discriminate among the models. We discuss the effects on cross-correlation measurements of ignoring galaxy bias evolution, b(z), and magnification bias correction and provide fitting formulae for b(z) for the cosmologies considered. We compare three different tomographic schemes and investigate how the expected signal-to-noise ratio, S/N, of the ISW-LSS cross-correlation changes when increasing the number of tomographic bins. The dependence of S/N on the area of the survey and the survey shot noise is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]