Chameleon Fields: Awaiting Surprises for Tests of Gravity in Space

2003/09/30 by Justin Khoury, Amanda Weltman · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.171104

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.93:171104,2004 · 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: expanded thin-shell discussion. v3: added 2 figures showing numerical results that confirm thin-shell effect

arxiv created 2004/09/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

We present a novel scenario where a scalar field acquires a mass which depends on the local matter density: the field is massive on Earth, where the density is high, but is essentially free in the solar system, where the density is low. All existing tests of gravity are satisfied. We predict that near-future satellite experiments could measure an effective Newton's constant in space different than that on Earth, as well as violations of the equivalence principle stronger than currently allowed by laboratory experiments.

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