Related papers: Constraining Disformally Coupled Scalar Fields
Light scalar fields can naturally couple disformally to Standard Model fields without giving rise to the unacceptably large fifth forces usually associated with light scalars. We show that these scalar fields can still be studied and…
Disformally coupled, light scalar fields arise in many of the theories of dark energy and modified gravity that attempt to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. They have proved difficult to constrain with precision tests of…
Many modifications of gravity introduce new scalar degrees of freedom, and in such theories matter fields typically couple to an effective metric that depends on both the true metric of spacetime and on the scalar field and its derivatives.…
We consider a broad class of interactions between radiation and a light scalar field, including both conformal and disformal couplings. Such a scalar field potentially acts on cosmological scales as dark energy and could also appear in…
Many theories of dark energy and modified gravity give rise to scalar fields that couple derivatively to the energy momentum tensor of matter. This is known as disformal coupling. I will show that laboratory searches for axions are ideally…
Scalar fields coupled to dark matter by conformal or disformal transformations give rise to a general class of scalar-tensor theories which leads to a rich phenomenology in a cosmological setting. While this possibility has been studied…
We show that, as a result of non-linear self-interactions, it is feasible, at least in light of the bounds coming from terrestrial tests of gravity, measurements of the Casimir force and those constraints imposed by the physics of compact…
Interactions between dark matter and dark energy, allowing both conformal and and disformal couplings, are studied in detail. We discuss the background evolution, anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and large scale structures.…
In this work we consider a cosmological model in which dark energy is portrayed by a canonical scalar field which is allowed to couple to the other species by means of a disformal transformation of the metric. We revisit the current…
We consider a cosmology in which dark matter and a quintessence scalar field responsible for the acceleration of the Universe are allowed to interact. Allowing for both conformal and disformal couplings, we perform a global analysis of the…
It is shown that extensions to General Relativity, which introduce a strongly coupled scalar field, can be viable if the interaction has a non-conformal form. Such disformal coupling depends upon the gradients of the scalar field. Thus, if…
A particle $\phi$ coupling to two photons couples also to charged particles, like protons, through a loop. If the particle is a light scalar this induced coupling to protons leads to non-newtonian forces. We show that the experimental…
We study a theory in which the electromagnetic field is disformally coupled to a scalar field, in addition to a usual non-minimal electromagnetic coupling. We show that disformal couplings modify the expression for the fine-structure…
Certain modified gravity theories predict the existence of an additional, non-conformally coupled scalar field. A disformal coupling of the field to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is shown to affect the evolution of the energy…
When augmenting our cosmological models or gravitational theories with an additional light scalar field, any coupling between matter and this scalar can affect the orbital motion of binary systems. Ordinarily, the new force mediated by the…
We review a possible non-minimal coupling (dilatonic) of a scalar field (axion like particle) to electromagnetism, through experimental and observational constraints. Such a coupling is motivated from recent quasar spectrum observations…
The existence and detection of scalar fields could provide solutions to long-standing puzzles about the nature of dark matter, the dark compact objects at the centre of most galaxies, and other phenomena. Yet, self-interacting scalar fields…
We study CMB constraints on a model with a cosmological constant and a fraction of dark matter non-minimally coupled to a massless scalar field. In this scenario, there is an extra gravity-like fifth force which can affect the evolution of…
A disformal coupling between two scalar fields is considered in the context of cosmological inflation. The coupling introduces novel derivative interactions mixing the kinetic terms of the fields but without introducing superluminal or…
A coupling between a scalar field (representing the dark energy) and dark matter could produce rich phenomena in cosmology. It affects cosmic structure formation mainly through the fifth force, a velocity-dependent force that acts parallel…