Hidden in the Light: Magnetically Induced Afterglow from Trapped Chameleon Fields

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel afterglow effect caused by chameleon fields in optical experiments, offering a new method to detect these scalar fields through magnetically induced photon regeneration.

Contribution

It proposes and analyzes the magnetically induced afterglow phenomenon as a new experimental approach to detect chameleon fields in laboratory settings.

Findings

Accessible chameleon parameter range with current technology

Quantitative analysis of afterglow properties in various scenarios

Discussion of background and systematic effects

Abstract

We propose an afterglow phenomenon as a unique trace of chameleon fields in optical experiments. The vacuum interaction of a laser pulse with a magnetic field can lead to a production and subsequent trapping of chameleons in the vacuum chamber, owing to their mass dependence on the ambient matter density. Magnetically induced re-conversion of the trapped chameleons into photons creates an afterglow over macroscopic timescales that can conveniently be searched for by current optical experiments. We show that the chameleon parameter range accessible to available laboratory technology is comparable to scales familiar from astrophysical stellar energy loss arguments. We analyze quantitatively the afterglow properties for various experimental scenarios and discuss the role of potential background and systematic effects. We conclude that afterglow searches represent an ideal tool to aim at the production and detection of cosmologically relevant scalar fields in the laboratory.