  Dark energy perturbations are normally either neglected or else included in a
purely numerical way, obscuring their dependence on underlying parameters like
the equation of state or the sound speed. However, while many different
explanations for the dark energy can have the same equation of state, they
usually differ in their perturbations so that these provide a fingerprint for
distinguishing between different models with the same equation of state. In
this paper we derive simple yet accurate approximations that are able to
characterize a specific class of models (encompassing most scalar-field models)
which is often generically called "dark energy". We then use the approximate
solutions to look at the impact of the dark energy perturbations on the dark
matter power spectrum and on the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect in the cosmic
microwave background radiation.
