A Proposed Experimental Search for Chameleons using Asymmetric Parallel Plates

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental approach using asymmetric parallel plates to detect chameleon scalar fields, which are theorized to explain dark energy and evade current constraints through a screening mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup with asymmetric plates to improve sensitivity to chameleon fields beyond existing methods.

Findings

Asymmetric plates can enhance detection sensitivity for chameleon fields.

The proposed experiment can probe previously inaccessible parameter space.

Potential to complement atom-interferometry experiments in chameleon searches.

Abstract

Light scalar fields coupled to matter are a common consequence of theories of dark energy and attempts to solve the cosmological constant problem. The chameleon screening mechanism is commonly invoked in order to suppress the fifth forces mediated by these scalars, suficiently to avoid current experimental constraints, without fine tuning. The force is suppressed dynamically by allowing the mass of the scalar to vary with the local density. Recently it has been shown that near future cold atoms experiments using atom-interferometry have the ability to access a large proportion of the chameleon parameter space. In this work we demonstrate how experiments utilising asymmetric parallel plates can push deeper into the remaining parameter space available to the chameleon.