Supernova Brightening from Chameleon-Photon Mixing

Abstract

Measurements of standard candles and measurements of standard rulers give an inconsistent picture of the history of the universe. This discrepancy can be explained if photon number is not conserved as computations of the luminosity distance must be modified. I show that photon number is not conserved when photons mix with chameleons in the presence of a magnetic field. The strong magnetic fields in a supernova mean that the probability of a photon converting into a chameleon in the interior of the supernova is high, this results in a large flux of chameleons at the surface of the supernova. Chameleons and photons also mix as a result of the intergalactic magnetic field. These two effects combined cause the image of the supernova to be brightened resulting in a model which fits both observations of standard candles and observations of standard rulers.

17 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Compatibility of the chameleon-field model with fifth-force experiments, cosmology, and PVLAS and CAST results
• Testing Chameleon Theories with Light Propagating through a Magnetic Field
• Alpenglow - A Signature for Chameleons in Axion-Like Particle Search Experiments
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Detecting Chameleons: The Astronomical Polarization Produced by Chameleon-like Scalar Fields
• Consistency among distance measurements: transparency, BAO scale and accelerated expansion
• The Effect of a Chameleon Scalar Field on the Cosmic Microwave Background
• The Hubble diagram as a probe of mini-charged particles
• Magnetogenesis and the primordial non-gaussianity