  Dark energy must cluster in order to be consistent with the equivalence
principle. The background evolution can be effectively modelled by either a
scalar field or by a barotropic fluid.The fluid model can be used to emulate
perturbations in a scalar field model of dark energy, though this model breaks
down at large scales. In this paper we study evolution of dark energy
perturbations in canonical scalar field models: the classes of thawing and
freezing models.The dark energy equation of state evolves differently in these
classes.In freezing models, the equation of state deviates from that of a
cosmological constant at early times.For thawing models, the dark energy
equation of state remains near that of the cosmological constant at early times
and begins to deviate from it only at late times.Since the dark energy equation
of state evolves differently in these classes,the dark energy perturbations too
evolve differently. In freezing models, since the equation of state deviates
from that of a cosmological constant at early times, there is a significant
difference in evolution of matter perturbations from those in the cosmological
constant model.In comparison, matter perturbations in thawing models differ
from the cosmological constant only at late times. This difference provides an
additional handle to distinguish between these classes of models and this
difference should manifest itself in the ISW effect.
