Moduli Fields as Quintessence and the Chameleon

TL;DR

This paper examines moduli fields as candidates for dark energy, finding that chameleon mechanisms cannot sufficiently hide their effects, leading to a no-go theorem against moduli-based quintessence in supergravity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that moduli fields cannot serve as viable quintessence due to insufficient chameleon screening, establishing a no-go theorem within supergravity frameworks.

Findings

Chameleon effect is too weak to hide moduli fields.

Moduli quintessence models are ruled out by gravitational tests.

A no-go theorem states that supergravity models cannot realize moduli as quintessence.

Abstract

We consider models where moduli fields are not stabilized and play the role of quintessence. In order to evade gravitational tests, we investigate the possibility that moduli behave as chameleon fields. We find that, for realistic moduli superpotentials, the chameleon effect is not strong enough, implying that moduli quintessence models are gravitationally ruled out. More generally, we state a no-go theorem for quintessence in supergravity whereby models either behave like a pure cosmological constant or violate gravitational tests