Designing dark energy afterglow experiments

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the design and systematic effects of afterglow experiments like GammeV and CHASE to detect chameleon scalar fields as dark energy candidates, providing constraints on their properties.

Contribution

It offers a detailed theoretical and systematic analysis of afterglow experiments, improving understanding of their sensitivity to chameleon dark energy models.

Findings

CHASE data excludes many photon-coupled chameleon models

Predicted afterglow signals depend on experimental setup

Systematic effects significantly influence detection sensitivity

Abstract

Chameleon fields, which are scalar field dark energy candidates, can evade fifth force constraints by becoming massive in high-density regions. However, this property allows chameleon particles to be trapped inside a vacuum chamber with dense walls. Afterglow experiments constrain photon-coupled chameleon fields by attempting to produce and trap chameleon particles inside such a vacuum chamber, from which they will emit an afterglow as they regenerate photons. Here we discuss several theoretical and systematic effects underlying the design and analysis of the GammeV and CHASE afterglow experiments. We consider chameleon particle interactions with photons, Fermions, and other chameleon particles, as well as with macroscopic magnetic fields and matter. The afterglow signal in each experiment is predicted, and its sensitivity to various properties of the experimental apparatus is studied. Finally, we use CHASE data to exclude a wide range of photon-coupled chameleon dark energy models.