Work

Searching for screened scalar forces with long-baseline atom interferometers

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Screened scalars are ubiquitous in many dark-sector models. They give rise to nontrivial fifth forces while evading experimental constraints through density-dependent screening mechanisms. We propose equipping a 10 m-scale long-baseline atom interferometer with an annular planar source mass inside the vacuum chamber to search for such screened fifth forces. Two key challenges arise: distinguishing the static fifth force from backgrounds, and isolating it from the plate’s Newtonian gravity. We introduce the Q -flip protocol, which alternates between interferometry sequences to induce controllable time-dependence, aiding signal extraction and detrending of transient noise. We further develop an calibration procedure to characterize the plate’s Newtonian gravity and reach shot-noise-limited sensitivity. We show that our proposal could test theoretically motivated parameter space, advancing existing bounds on chameleon and symmetron screened scalar models by 1 to 1.5 orders of magnitude. Our proposal is directly applicable to forthcoming experiments, such as AION-10 or VLBAI, and is readily extensible to broader theoretical models and longer baselines.

Source: Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

DOI: 10.1103/3486-4m4t

Authors: Hannah Banks, John Carlton, Benjamin Elder, Thomas Hird, Christopher McCabe