Screening three-form fields

TL;DR

This paper explores screening mechanisms for a three-form field around dense objects like the Sun, revealing unique dipole configurations and identifying parameter ranges compatible with solar system tests.

Contribution

It introduces a novel screening mechanism for three-form fields and characterizes their behavior and constraints in astrophysical environments.

Findings

The three-form field forms a dipole outside dense sources.

A thin-shell region where interactions are short-range is identified.

Parameter space satisfying solar system tests is determined.

Abstract

Screening mechanisms for a three-form field around a dense source such as the Sun are investigated. Working with the dual vector, we can obtain a thin-shell where field interactions are short range. The field outside the source adopts the configuration of a dipole which is a manifestly distinct behaviour from the one obtained with a scalar field or even a previously proposed vector field model. We identify the region of parameter space where this model satisfies present solar system tests.