Field flows of dark energy

Scalar field dark energy evolving from a long radiation- or matter-dominated epoch has characteristic dynamics. While slow-roll approximations are invalid, a well defined field expansion captures the key aspects of the dark energy evolution during much of the matter-dominated epoch. Since this behavior is determined, it is not faithfully represented if priors for dynamical quantities are chosen randomly. We demonstrate these features for both thawing and freezing fields, and for some modified gravity models, and unify several special cases from the literature.