2007/10/31 by Holger Gies, David F. Mota, Douglas J. Shaw · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.025016
published as Phys.Rev.D77:025016,2008 · 17 pages, 1 figure. Phys. Rev. D in print
arxiv created 2008/01/07 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We propose an afterglow phenomenon as a unique trace of chameleon fields in optical experiments. The vacuum interaction of a laser pulse with a magnetic field can lead to a production and subsequent trapping of chameleons in the vacuum chamber, owing to their mass dependence on the ambient matter density. Magnetically induced reconversion of the trapped chameleons into photons creates an afterglow over macroscopic timescales that can conveniently be searched for by current optical experiments. We show that the chameleon parameter range accessible to available laboratory technology is comparable to scales familiar from astrophysical stellar energy-loss arguments. We analyze quantitatively the afterglow properties for various experimental scenarios and discuss the role of potential background and systematic effects. We conclude that afterglow searches represent an ideal tool to aim at the production and detection of cosmologically relevant scalar fields in the laboratory.