Related papers: Minimal targets for dilaton direct detection
We consider a long range scalar force that mainly couples to dark matter and unstable Standard Model states, like the muon, with tiny strength. Probing this type of force would present a challenge to observations. We point out that the…
We consider a fifth force to be an interaction that couples to matter with a strength that grows with the number of atoms. In addition to competing with the strength of gravity a fifth force can give rise to violations of the equivalence…
The symmetron scalar field is a matter-coupled dark energy candidate which effectively decouples from matter in high-density regions through a symmetry restoration. We consider a previously unexplored regime, in which the vacuum mass $\mu…
Experimental discovery of the dilaton would provide strong evidence for string theory. A light dilaton could show up in current tests of the inverse square law for gravity at sub-millimeter distances. In the large extra dimension scenario,…
We study a model in which dark matter couples to the Standard Model through a dilaton of a sector with spontaneously broken approximate scale invariance. Scale invariance fixes the dilaton couplings to the Standard Model and dark matter…
Ultralight scalar dark matter may induce apparent oscillations of the muon mass, which may be directly probed via temporal shifts in the spectra of muonium and muonic atoms. Existing datasets and ongoing spectroscopy measurements with…
The equivalence of inertial and gravitational masses is a defining feature of general relativity. Here, we clarify the status of the equivalence principle for interactions mediated by a universally coupled scalar, motivated partly by recent…
The evidence for the observation of the Higgs spin-0-boson as a manifestation of a scalar field provides the missing corner stone for the standard model of particles (SM). However, the SM fails to explain the non-visible but gravitationally…
Higher-dimensional theories of the kind which may unify gravitation with particle physics can lead to significant modifications of general relativity. In five dimensions, the vacuum becomes non-standard, and the Weak Equivalence Principle…
Light scalar fields are expected to arise in theories of high energy physics (such as string theory), and find phenomenological motivations in dark energy, dark matter, or neutrino physics. However, the coupling of light scalar fields to…
We study the effects of coupling a cosmologically rolling scalar field to higher order curvature terms. We show that when the strong coupling scale of the theory is on the 10^{-3}-10^{-1}eV range, the model passes all experimental bounds on…
Universe heating in $R^2$-modified gravity is considered. The rates of particle production by the scalaron are calculated for different decay channels. Freezing of massive stable relics with the interaction strength typical for…
The recently proposed Multi-coupled Dark Energy (McDE) scenario - characterised by two distinct Cold Dark Matter (CDM) particle species with opposite couplings to a Dark Energy scalar field - introduces a number of novel features in the…
If dark energy --- which drives the accelerated expansion of the universe --- consists of a light scalar field, it might be detectable as a "fifth force" between normal-matter objects, in potential conflict with precision tests of gravity.…
A light scalar dark matter (DM) is allowed in a wide range of the mass and interaction types. We show that the light scalar DM may be probed in a new way from final years of neutron-star (NS) binary inspirals. If the DM interacts with the…
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.…
Coulomb-like interactions typically has a cross section scales with velocity dependence as $\sigma=\sigma_0 v^{-4}$. The momentum transfer rate between a slightly charged dark matter and ionized particles increases significantly at low…
We explore the possibility of improving the $\Lambda$CDM model at megaparsec scales by introducing a scalar interaction which increases the mutual gravitational attraction of dark matter particles. Using N-body simulations, we study the…
The main aim of this work is to explore the possibility that cold dark matter (CDM) and early dark energy (EDE) can be described by canonical scalar fields that are coupled at the level of its conservation equations. The formalism covers…
We study a class of models in which the Standard Model (SM) and dark matter (DM) belong to a conformal/scale-invariant theory at high energies. Scale invariance is spontaneously broken at scale $f$, giving rise to a dilaton as the…