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Chameleon particle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chameleon particle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The chameleon is a hypothetical scalar particle which

Chameleon
couples to matter, postulated as a dark energy
Composition Unknown
candidate.[1] Due to a non-linear self-interaction, it has a
variable effective mass which is an increasing function of Interactions
Gravity, Electroweak
the ambient energy density as a result, the range of the
Status
Hypothetical
force mediated by the particle is predicted to be very
Mass
Variable, depending on ambient
small in regions of high density (for example on Earth,
energy density
where it is less than 1mm) but much larger in low-density
intergalactic regions: out in the cosmos chameleon
Electric charge 0
models permit a range of up to several thousand parsecs.
Spin
0
As a result of this variable mass, the hypothetical fifth
force mediated by the chameleon is able to evade current
constraints on equivalence principle violation derived from terrestrial experiments even if it couples to
matter with a strength equal or greater than that of gravity. While this property would allow the chameleon
to drive the currently observed acceleration of the universe's expansion, it also makes it very difficult to test
for experimentally.

Contents
1 Hypothetical properties
2 Experimental searches
3 References
3.1 Notes
3.2 Journal entries
4 External links

Hypothetical properties
In most theories, chameleons have a mass that scales as some power of the local energy density:
, where
.
Chameleons also couple to photons, allowing photons and chameleons to oscillate between each other in
the presence of an external magnetic field.[2]
Chameleons can be confined in hollow containers because their mass increases rapidly as they penetrate the
container wall, causing them to reflect. One strategy to search experimentally for chameleons is to direct
photons into a cavity, confining the chameleons produced, and then to switch off the light source.
Chameleons would be indicated by the presence of an afterglow as they decay back into photons.[3]
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Experimental searches
A number of experiments have attempted to detect chameleons along with axions.[4]
The GammeV experiment[5] is a search for axions, but has been used to look for chameleons too. It consists
of a cylindrical chamber inserted in a 5T magnetic field. The ends of the chamber are glass windows,
allowing light from a laser to enter and afterglow to exit.
The latest results were published in November 2010[6] (nothing found in the range of photon and matter
coupling they tested)

References
Notes
1. ^ J. Khoury and A. Weltman, Phys. Rev. D 69, 044026 (2004)
2. ^ Erickcek, A. L.; Barnaby, N; Burrage, C; Huang, Z (2013). "Catastrophic consequences of kicking the
chameleon". Physical review letters 110 (17): 171101. PMID 23679701
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23679701).
3. ^ J.H. Steffen et al., "Constraints on chameleons and axion-like particles from the GammeV experiment" [1]
(http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.5070)
4. ^ Rybka, G; Hotz, M; Rosenberg, L. J.; Asztalos, S. J.; Carosi, G; Hagmann, C; Kinion, D; Van Bibber, K;
Hoskins, J; Martin, C; Sikivie, P; Tanner, D. B.; Bradley, R; Clarke, J (2010). "Search for chameleon scalar
fields with the axion dark matter experiment". Physical review letters 105 (5): 051801. PMID 20867906
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20867906).
5. ^ GammeV experiment at Fermilab (http://gammev.fnal.gov/)
6. ^ The CHASE laboratory search for chameleon dark energy (http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3802)

Journal entries
Khoury, J.; Weltman, A. (2004). "Chameleon fields: awaiting surprises for tests of gravity in space".
Physical Review Letters 93 (17): 171104. arXiv:astro-ph/0309300 (https://arxiv.org/abs/astroph/0309300). Bibcode:2004PhRvL..93q1104K
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PhRvL..93q1104K). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.171104
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevLett.93.171104). PMID 15525066
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15525066).
Khoury, J.; Weltman, A. (2004). "Chameleon cosmology". Physical Review D 69 (4): 044026.
arXiv:astro-ph/0309411 (https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309411). Bibcode:2004PhRvD..69d4026K
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PhRvD..69d4026K). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.69.044026
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevD.69.044026).
Brax, P.; van de Bruck, C.; Davis, A.-C.; Khoury, J.; Weltman, A. (2004). "Detecting dark energy in
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orbit: The cosmological chameleon". Physical Review D 70 (12): 123518. arXiv:astro-ph/0408415

(https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0408415). Bibcode:2004PhRvD..70l3518B
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PhRvD..70l3518B). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.70.123518
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevD.70.123518).

External links

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Categories: Bosons Dark matter Cosmology Astroparticle physics Hypothetical elementary particles
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