Strongly Coupled Chameleons and the Neutronic Quantum Bouncer

Abstract

We consider the potential detection of chameleons using bouncing ultracold neutrons. We show that the presence of a chameleon field over a planar plate would alter the energy levels of ultra cold neutrons in the terrestrial gravitational field. When chameleons are strongly coupled to nuclear matter, $\beta \gtrsim 10^8$, we find that the shift in energy levels would be detectable with the forthcoming GRANIT experiment, where a sensitivity of order one percent of a peV is expected. We also find that an extremely large coupling $\beta \gtrsim 10^{11}$ would lead to new bound states at a distance of order 2 microns, which is already ruled out by previous Grenoble experiments. The resulting bound, $\beta \lesssim 10^{11}$, is already three orders of magnitude better than the upper bound, $\beta \lesssim 10^{14}$, from precision tests of atomic spectra.

4 pages, 1 figure, coincides with the PRL version

References in corpus (10)

• Dynamics of dark energy
• Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law below the Dark-Energy Length Scale
• Approaches to Understanding Cosmic Acceleration
• Strongly Coupled Chameleon Fields: New Horizons in Scalar Field Theory
• Neutron scattering and extra short range interactions
• Atomic Precision Tests and Light Scalar Couplings
• Laboratory constraints on chameleon dark energy and power-law fields
• Tuning the Mass of Chameleon Fields in Casimir Force Experiments
• Anomalous coupling of scalars to gauge fields
• Proposal for measuring the quantum states of neutrons in the gravitational field with a CCD-based pixel sensor

Cited by in corpus (61)

• Beyond the Cosmological Standard Model
• Tests of Chameleon Gravity
• Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy Constrains Dark Energy and Dark Matter Scenarios
• Probing Dark Energy with Atom Interferometry
• A Compendium of Chameleon Constraints
• Chameleon Dark Energy and Atom Interferometry
• Testing Screened Modified Gravity
• Neutron Interferometry constrains dark energy chameleon fields
• Constraining Disformally Coupled Scalar Fields
• Dark energy fifth forces in torsion pendulum experiments
• Neutron Limit on the Strongly-Coupled Chameleon Field
• Probing Strongly Coupled Chameleons with Slow Neutrons
• Bounding Quantum Dark Forces
• Constraining symmetron fields with atom interferometry
• Tests of Fundamental Quantum Mechanics and Dark Interactions with Low Energy Neutrons -- Extended Version
• The influence of the chameleon field potential on transition frequencies of gravitationally bound quantum states of ultra-cold neutrons
• Probing Dark Energy models with neutrons
• Chameleons in the Early Universe: Kicks, Rebounds, and Particle Production
• Neutron Stars in Screened Modified Gravity: Chameleon vs Dilaton
• Atomic Interferometry Test of Dark Energy
• Casimir, Gravitational and Neutron Tests of Dark Energy
• Radiative Screening of Fifth Forces
• Constraining screened fifth forces with the electron magnetic moment
• Charting the Fifth Force Landscape
• Chameleon foreCAST
• Ellipticity Weakens Chameleon Screening
• Exact Solution for Chameleon Field, Self-Coupled Through the Ratra-Peebles Potential with n = 1 and Confined Between Two Parallel Plates
• Quantum Chameleons
• Novel constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark sector with asteroidal data
• The shape dependence of chameleon screening
• Explaining the Proton Radius Puzzle with Disformal Scalars
• Strongly coupled chameleon fields: possible test with a neutron Lloyd's mirror interferometer
• Probing Modified Gravity with Atom-Interferometry: a Numerical Approach
• Constraining modified gravity with quantum optomechanics
• Designing dark energy afterglow experiments
• A Gravity of Earth Measurement with a qBOUNCE Experiment
• Detecting Domain Walls in Laboratory Experiments
• Frequency shifts in gravitational resonance spectroscopy
• Gravitational resonance spectroscopy with an oscillating magnetic field gradient in the GRANIT flow through arrangement
• Non-Relativistic Approximation of the Dirac Equation for Slow Fermions in Static Metric Spacetimes
• Scalar-Mediated Quantum Forces Between Macroscopic Bodies and Interferometry
• Status of the GRANIT facility
• GRASIAN: Towards the first demonstration of gravitational quantum states of atoms with a cryogenic hydrogen beam
• Spin Precession of Slow Neutrons in Einstein-Cartan Gravity with Torsion, Chameleon and Magnetic Field
• Non-Relativistic Approximation of Dirac Equation for Slow Fermions Coupled to the Chameleon and Torsion Fields in the Gravitational Field of the Earth
• Effects of a scalar fifth force on the dynamics of a charged particle as a new experimental design to test chameleon theories
• Chameleon Fragmentation
• Potential of the neutron Lloyd's mirror interferometer for the search for new interactions
• The Nature of Dark Energy and Constraints on Its Hypothetical Constituents from Force Measurements
• Lectures on Screened Modified Gravity
• Neutrons on a surface of liquid helium
• Standard Electroweak Interactions in Gravitational Theory with Chameleon Field and Torsion
• Effective Low-Energy Potential for Slow Dirac Fermions in Einstein-Cartan Gravity with Torsion and Chameleon
• Testing screened scalar-tensor theories of gravity with atomic clocks
• Impulsively Excited Gravitational Quantum States: Echoes and Time-resolved Spectroscopy
• Constraints on strongly coupled chameleon fields from the experimental test of the weak equivalence principle for the neutron
• A quantized frequency reference in the short-ranged gravity potential and its application for dark matter and dark energy searches
• What laboratory experiments can teach us about cosmology: A chameleon example
• Quantum corrections to symmetron fifth-force profiles
• Can Chameleon Field be identified with Quintessence ?
• Spatial distribution of ultracold neutron probability density in the gravitational field of the earth above a mirror