Chameleon Fields: Awaiting Surprises for Tests of Gravity in Space
Open accessAbstract
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 from that on Earth, as well as violations of the equivalence principle stronger than currently allowed by laboratory experiments.
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The chameleon field is an example of a field whose mass depends on the environment.
“An example of a field with such a behavior is the aptly named chameleon field (Khoury and Weltman 2004b, a).”
From Testing general relativity in cosmology (2019) · cites this paper as Khoury and Weltman 2004b
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- Authors
- Khoury, J., & Weltman, A.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2004-10-22
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 17
- Pages
- 171104-171104
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2152565162
- Cited by
- 1,648
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 66 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 100 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 90 · 2021: 99 · 2020: 70 · 2019: 92 · 2018: 122 · 2017: 69 · 2016: 96 · 2015: 90 · 2014: 72 · 2013: 91 · 2012: 96
- FWCI
- 12.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
- Keywords
- chameleon field, scalar field mass, matter density dependence, tests of gravity, modified gravity, equivalence principle violation, effective Newton's constant, satellite experiments, solar system
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