English

Bounds on screened dark energy from near-Earth space-based measurements

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-03-11 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We test screened dark energy with near-Earth, space-based measurements. In a post-Newtonian framework, we compute leading corrections to geodetic precession (Gravity Probe B), LAGEOS-2 pericenter advance, and the Sagnac delay in a prospective orbital configuration, yielding bounds on chameleon, symmetron, and dilaton models. LAGEOS-2 sets the strongest Earth-orbit limits on symmetron and dilaton, while a Sagnac setup at the projected sensitivity of state-of-the-art space clocks gives the tightest chameleon constraint. These results show that low-density, space-based experiments sensitively probe screened dark energy and exclude previously allowed parameter space. Notably, at nuclear-clock precision O(1019)\mathcal{O}\big(10^{-19}\big), a Sagnac test would exclude the entire chameleon parameter space considered.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.08448,
  title  = {Bounds on screened dark energy from near-Earth space-based measurements},
  author = {Fabiano Feleppa and Welmoed Marit de Graaf and Philippe Brax and Gaetano Lambiase},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.08448},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 6 figures (4 subfigures); v2: typos corrected, clarifications and references added, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters