We explore the cosmological implications of a new quintessence scenario driven by a slow rolling homogeneous scalar field whose equation of state behaved as freezing over the entire cosmic evolution is approaching −1 today, but will become thawing in the near future, thereby driving the universe to an eternal deceleration. We argue that such a mixed behavior, named hybrid, may reconcile the slight preference of current observational data for freezing potentials with the impossibility of defining observables in the string/M-theory context due to the existence of a cosmological event horizon in asymptotically de Sitter universes as, e.g., pure freezing scenarios.PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq, 95.36.+x
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