Related papers: A Chameleon Primer
Most theories that predict time and/or space variation of fundamental constants also predict violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle. In 2004 Khoury and Weltman proposed the so called chameleon field arguing that it could help avoiding…
In the framework of Newtonian cosmology or general relativity it is simple to derive a mass scale below which collapsed structures are relatively devoid of baryons. We examine how the inclusion of a chameleon scalar field affects this…
A scalar field is a favorite candidate for the particle responsible for dark energy. However, few theoretical means exist that can simultaneously explain the observed acceleration of the Universe and evade tests of gravity. The chameleon…
Light scalar fields can drive the accelerated expansion of the universe. Hence, they are obvious dark energy candidates. To make such models compatible with tests of General Relativity in the solar system and "fifth force" searches on…
In chameleon gravity, there exists a light scalar field that couples to the trace of the stress-energy tensor in such a way that its mass depends on the ambient matter density, and the field is screened in local, high-density environments.…
Theories of dark energy require a screening mechanism to explain why the associated scalar fields do not mediate observable long range fifth forces. The archetype of this is the chameleon field. Here we show that individual atoms are too…
This article is dedicated to the use the MICROSCOPE mission's data to test chameleon theory of gravity. We take advantage of the technical sessions aimed to characterize the electrostatic stiffness of MICROSCOPE's instrument intrinsic to…
Chameleon and symmetron theories serve as archetypal models for how light scalar fields can couple to matter with gravitational strength or greater, yet evade the stringent constraints from classical tests of gravity on Earth and in the…
We consider a generalized Brans-Dicke model in which the scalar field has a self-interacting potential function. The scalar field is also allowed to couple non-minimally with the matter part. We assume that it has a chameleon behavior in…
Recently it was argued that the conformal coupling of the chameleon to matter fields created an issue for early universe cosmology. As standard model degrees of freedom become non-relativistic in the early universe the chameleon is…
We consider static, spherically symmetric equilibrium configurations consisting of fermionic dark matter nonminimally coupled to dark energy in the form of a quintessence scalar field. With the scalar field coupling function, the form of…
Chameleon fields are scalar fields whose mass depends on the ambient matter density. We investigate the effects of these fields on the growth of density perturbations on sub-galactic scales and the formation of the first dark matter halos.…
We investigate cosmological solutions of the chameleon model with a non-minimal coupling between the matter and the scalar field through a conformal factor with gravitational strength. By considering the spatially flat FLRW metric and the…
We present a novel scenario where a scalar field acquires a mass which depends on the local matter density: the field is massive on Earth, where the density is high, but is essentially free in the solar system, where the density is low. All…
Laboratory experiments can shed light on theories of new physics introduced in order to explain cosmological mysteries, including the nature of dark energy and dark matter. In this article I will focus on one particular example of this, the…
The GammeV experiment has constrained the couplings of chameleon scalar fields to matter and photons. Here we present a detailed calculation of the chameleon afterglow rate underlying these constraints. The dependence of GammeV constraints…
Models where the accelerated expansion of our Universe is caused by a quintessence scalar field are reviewed. In the framework of high energy physics, the physical nature of this field is discussed and its interaction with ordinary matter…
This article investigates the profile of the scalar field of a scalar-tensor theory subject to the chameleon mechanism in the context of gravity space missions like the MICROSCOPE experiment. It analyses the experimental situations for…
In this paper we present the results of $N$-body simulations with a scalar field coupled differently to cold dark matter (CDM) and baryons. The scalar field potential and coupling function are chosen such that the scalar field acquires a…
Modified theories of gravity provide us with a unique opportunity to generate innovative tests of gravity. In Chameleon f(R) gravity, the gravitational potential differs from the weak-field limit of general relativity (GR) in a mass…