Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory
We study a new screening mechanism which is present in Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI)-like theories. A scalar field with a DBI-like Lagrangian is minimally coupled to matter. In the vicinity of sufficiently dense sources, nonlinearities in the scalar dominate and result in an approximately constant acceler...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Physical Society
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42102/ |
| _version_ | 1848796419315466240 |
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| author | Burrage, Clare Khoury, Justin |
| author_facet | Burrage, Clare Khoury, Justin |
| author_sort | Burrage, Clare |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We study a new screening mechanism which is present in Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI)-like theories. A scalar field with a DBI-like Lagrangian is minimally coupled to matter. In the vicinity of sufficiently dense sources, nonlinearities in the scalar dominate and result in an approximately constant acceleration on a test particle, thereby suppressing the scalar force relative to gravity. Unlike generic P(X) or chameleon theories, screening happens within the regime of validity of the effective field theory thanks to the DBI symmetry. We derive an exact form for the field profile around multiple sources and determine the constraints on the theory parameters from tests of gravity. Perturbations around the spherically-symmetric background propagate superluminally, but we argue for a chronology protection analogous to Galileons. This is the first example of a screening mechanism for which quantum corrections to the theory are under control and exact solutions to cosmological N-body problems can be found. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:47:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-42102 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:47:41Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-421022020-05-04T16:48:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42102/ Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory Burrage, Clare Khoury, Justin We study a new screening mechanism which is present in Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI)-like theories. A scalar field with a DBI-like Lagrangian is minimally coupled to matter. In the vicinity of sufficiently dense sources, nonlinearities in the scalar dominate and result in an approximately constant acceleration on a test particle, thereby suppressing the scalar force relative to gravity. Unlike generic P(X) or chameleon theories, screening happens within the regime of validity of the effective field theory thanks to the DBI symmetry. We derive an exact form for the field profile around multiple sources and determine the constraints on the theory parameters from tests of gravity. Perturbations around the spherically-symmetric background propagate superluminally, but we argue for a chronology protection analogous to Galileons. This is the first example of a screening mechanism for which quantum corrections to the theory are under control and exact solutions to cosmological N-body problems can be found. American Physical Society 2014-07-01 Article PeerReviewed Burrage, Clare and Khoury, Justin (2014) Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory. Physical Review D, D90 (2). 024001/1-024001/5. ISSN 2470-0029 https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.024001 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.024001 doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.024001 |
| spellingShingle | Burrage, Clare Khoury, Justin Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title | Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title_full | Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title_fullStr | Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title_full_unstemmed | Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title_short | Screening of scalar fields in Dirac-Born-Infeld theory |
| title_sort | screening of scalar fields in dirac-born-infeld theory |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42102/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42102/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42102/ |