2013/02/06 by Michael Romalis, Michael V. Romalis, Romalis, Michael V. +2 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Seismology and Earthquake Studies #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1302.1579
5 pages, 3 figures (added two more scenarios to detect interaction, plus references)
openalex publication_date 2013/02/06 · arxiv created 2013/02/28 · arxiv updated 2013/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A cosmic scalar field evolving very slowly in time can account for the observed dark energy of the Universe. Unlike a cosmological constant, an evolving scalar field also has local spatial gradients due to gravity. If the scalar field has a minimal derivative coupling to electromagnetism, it will cause modifications of Maxwell's equations. In particular, in the presence of a scalar field gradient generated by Earth's gravity, regions with a magnetic field appear to be electrically charged and regions with a static electric field appear to contain electric currents. We propose experiments to detect such effects with sensitivity exceeding current limits on scalar field interactions from measurements of cosmological birefringence. If the scalar field has derivative couplings to fermions, it would also generate observable effects in precision spin precession experiments.