Abstract

We explore quintessence models of dark energy which exhibit non-minimal coupling between the dark matter and dark energy components of the cosmic fluid. The kind of coupling chosen is inspired by scalar-tensor theories of gravity. We impose a suitable dynamics of the expansion allowing us to derive exact Friedmann-Robertson-Walker solutions once the coupling function is given as input. Self-interaction potentials of single and double exponential types emerge as a result of our choice of the coupling function. The stability and existence of the solutions are discussed in some detail. Although, in general, models with appropriate interaction between the components of the cosmic mixture are useful for handling the coincidence problem, in the present study this problem cannot be avoided due to the choice of solution generating ansatz.