Consequences of Fine-Tuning for Fifth Force Searches

Abstract

Light bosonic fields mediate long range forces between objects. If these fields have self-interactions, i.e., non-quadratic terms in the potential, the experimental constraints on such forces can be drastically altered due to a screening (chameleon) or enhancement effect. We explore how technically natural values for such self-interaction coupling constants modify the existing constraints. We point out that assuming the existence of these natural interactions leads to new constraints, contrary to the usual expectation that screening leads to gaps in coverage. We discuss how screening can turn fundamentally equivalence principle (EP)-preserving forces into EP-violating ones. This means that when natural screening is present, searches for EP violation can be used to constrain EP-preserving forces. We show how this effect enables the recently discovered stellar triple system \textit{PSR J0337$+$1715} to place a powerful constraint on EP-preserving fifth forces. Finally, we demonstrate that technically natural cubic self-interactions modify the vacuum structure of the scalar potential, leading to new constraints from spontaneous and induced vacuum decay.

36 pages, 9 figures -- v3 reflects version published in JHEP

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• Searching for a Fifth Force with Atomic and Nuclear Clocks
• Screening the Higgs portal
• Dark Matter Raining on DUNE and Other Large Volume Detectors
• Dark Kinetic Heating of Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs
• Constraints on Long-Ranged Interactions Between Dark Matter and the Standard Model