Coupled quintessence with a possible transient accelerating phase
  We discuss some cosmological consequences of a general model of coupled
quintessence in which the phenomenological coupling between the cold dark
matter and dark energy is a function of the cosmic scale factor $\epsilon(a)$.
This class of models presents cosmological solutions in which the Universe is
currently dominated by an exotic component, but will eventually be dominated by
cold dark matter in the future. This dynamical behavior is considerably
different from the standard $\Lambda$CDM evolution, and may alleviate some
conflicts in reconciling the idea of the dark energy-dominated universe with
observables in String/M-theory. Finally, we investigate some observational
features of this model and discuss some constraints on its parameters from
current SNe Ia, BAO and CMB data.
