Technically Natural Suppression of Fifth Force
Abstract
Light scalars generically mediate a fifth force incompatible with local tests of gravity unless their couplings are parametrically suppressed or screening mechanisms are introduced. We demonstrate that such suppression can arise from symmetry. We propose a -symmetric mirror extension of the Standard Model within a bi-conformal gravity construction, where spontaneous breaking of scale invariance produces a light scalaron as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. This scalaron couples to the difference of trace anomalies between the Standard Model and mirror sectors. We find a parameter-independent correlation between the fifth-force strength and the scalaron mass , with the proportionality set by QCD observables and the electroweak scale. The Standard Model predicts at meter scales for eV, which is directly in the target window of next-generation experiments. In contrast to environmental screening mechanisms, this suppression mechanism follows directly from symmetry rather than nonlinear scalar dynamics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.20292,
title = {Technically Natural Suppression of Fifth Force},
author = {Kensuke Homma and Taishi Katsuragawa and Shinya Matsuzaki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.20292},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
13 pages, 2 figures