Confronting Tracker Field Quintessence with Data

We confront tracker field quintessence with observational data. The potentials considered in this paper include $V(\varphi )\propto {\varphi }^{-\alpha }$, $\exp (M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )$, $\exp (M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )-1$, $\exp (\beta M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )$ and $\exp (\gamma M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )-1$; while the data come from the latest SN Ia, CMB and BAO observations. Stringent parameter constraints are obtained. In comparison with the cosmological constant via information criteria, it is found that models with potentials $\exp (M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )$, $\exp (M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )-1$ and $\exp (\gamma M_p\mathrm{/}\varphi )-1$ are not supported by the current data.