On the growth of perturbations in interacting dark energy and dark matter fluids

The covariant generalizations of the background dark sector coupling suggested in Mangano, Miele and Pettorino (Mod Phys Lett A 18:831, 2003) are considered. The evolution of perturbations is studied with detailed attention to interaction rate that is proportional to the product of dark matter and dark energy densities. It is shown that some classes of models with coupling of this type do not suffer from early time instabilities in strong coupling regime.