Novel Screening with Two Bodies: Summing the ladder in disformal scalar-tensor theories

TL;DR

This paper introduces a disformal screening mechanism in scalar-tensor theories that suppresses fifth forces at small scales, enabling new tests of gravity via solar system and gravitational wave observations.

Contribution

It demonstrates how ladder diagram resummation leads to a novel screening effect in disformal scalar-tensor theories, connecting perturbative and non-perturbative effects.

Findings

Disformal couplings can suppress scalar-mediated forces at small scales.

Resummation of ladder diagrams explains the screening mechanism.

Observational bounds constrain disformal scalar-tensor theories.

Abstract

When augmenting our cosmological models or gravitational theories with an additional light scalar field, any coupling between matter and this scalar can affect the orbital motion of binary systems. Ordinarily, the new force mediated by the scalar can be naturally the same order of magnitude as the usual gravitational force and therefore is tightly constrained. We show that a disformal coupling between the scalar and matter can lead to a novel screening mechanism in which these fifth forces are suppressed by several orders of magnitude at sufficiently small separations and large relative velocities (such as solar system scales). This is a result of resumming a class of ladder diagrams, which suppresses the propagation of scalar signals between the two bodies. Moreover, we are able to relate potential ambiguities in this resummation to non-perturbative effects (which are invisible to perturbation theory). As a result, solar system tests and future gravitational wave observations can now be used to place meaningful constraints on scalar-tensor theories with disformal couplings. We exemplify this using observational bounds on the precession of planetary orbits.