Chameleon Induced Atomic Afterglow

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to detect chameleon scalar fields by inducing atomic afterglow within an optical cavity, exploiting their environment-dependent mass and interactions with matter.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental approach to detect chameleon fields through atomic transitions and afterglow phenomena in optical cavities.

Findings

Chameleons can be trapped and form standing waves in optical cavities.

Atomic afterglow can be observed as a signature of chameleon interactions.

The method provides a new way to probe chameleon-matter couplings.

Abstract

The chameleon is a scalar field whose mass depends on the density of its environment. Chameleons are necessarily coupled to matter particles and will excite transitions between atomic energy levels in an analogous manner to photons. When created inside an optical cavity by passing a laser beam through a constant magnetic field, chameleons are trapped between the cavity walls and form a standing wave. This effect will lead to an afterglow phenomenon even when the laser beam and the magnetic field have been turned off, and could be used to probe the interactions of the chameleon field with matter.