Solar System Experiments in the Search for Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Abstract

We reassess the realistic discovery reach of Solar-System experiments for dark energy (DE) and dark matter (DM), making explicit the bridge from cosmology-level linear responses to local, screened residuals. In scalar-tensor frameworks with a universal conformal coupling $A(\varphi )$ and chameleon/Vainshtein screening, we map cosmological responses $\{\mu (z,k),\Sigma (z,k)\}$ inferred by DESI and \emph{Euclid} to thin-shell or Vainshtein residuals in deep Solar potentials ${\Phi }_N$. We emphasize a two-branch strategy. In a detection-first branch, a verified local anomaly -- an Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) violation, a Shapiro-delay signal with $|\gamma -1|\sim \mathrm{few}\times 10^{-6}$, an AU-scale Yukawa tail, or a ultralight DM (ULDM) line in clocks/atom interferometers in space (AIS) -- triggers a joint refit of cosmology and Solar-System data under a common microphysical parameterization $\{V(\varphi ),A(\varphi )\}$. In a guardrail branch, Solar-System tests enforce constraints (EEP; PPN parameters $\gamma ,\beta$; and $\dot{G}/G$) and close unscreened or weakly screened corners indicated by cosmology. We forecast, per conjunction, $|\gamma -1|\lesssim (2-5)\times 10^{-6}$ (Ka-/X-band or optical Shapiro), $η_{EEP}\sim (1\mbox{--}10)\times 10^{-17}$ (drag-free AIS), $|\dot{G}/G|\sim (3-5)\times 10^{-15}\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ (sub-mm-class LLR), a uniform ~2x tightening of AU-scale Yukawa/DM-density bounds, and $(3-10)\times$ improved ULDM-coupling reach from clocks. For a conformal benchmark, ${\mu }_{lin,0}=0.10$ implies $\chi \simeq \sqrt{{\mu }_{lin,0}/2}$ and a Sun thin shell $\Delta R/R\lesssim (1/3\chi )\sqrt{|\gamma -1|/2}=2.4\times 10^{-3}$ at $|\gamma -1|=5\times 10^{-6}$; Vainshtein screening at 1 AU yields $|\gamma -1|\lesssim 10^{-11}$, naturally below near-term reach. We recommend a cost-effective guardrail+discovery portfolio with explicit triggers for escalation to dedicated missions.

32 pages, 4 figures, 12 tables

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Fundamental Physics in 2025: Status, Decisive Targets, and Path Forward
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