  Imagine a scenario in which the dark energy forms via the condensation of
dark matter at some low redshift. The Compton wavelength therefore changes from
small to very large at the transition, unlike quintessence or metamorphosis. We
study CMB, large scale structure, supernova and radio galaxy constraints on
condensation by performing a 4 parameter likelihood analysis over the Hubble
constant and the three parameters associated with Q, the condensate field:
Omega_Q, w_f and z_t (energy density and equation of state today, and redshift
of transition). Condensation roughly interpolates between Lambda CDM (for large
z_t) and sCDM (low z_t) and provides a slightly better fit to the data than
Lambda CDM. We confirm that there is no degeneracy in the CMB between H and z_t
and discuss the implications of late-time transitions for the Lyman-alpha
forest. Finally we discuss the nonlinear phase of both condensation and
metamorphosis, which is much more interesting than in standard quintessence
models.
