Abstract
We study constraints on dark energy models from solar system experiments combined with experiments on the violation of the equivalence principle. When the mass of an equivalent scalar field degree of freedom is heavy in a region with high density, a spherically symmetric body has a thin shell so that an effective coupling of the fifth force is suppressed through a chameleon mechanism. We place experimental bounds on the cosmologically viable models recently proposed in the literature that have an asymptotic form in the regime . From the solar system constraints on the post-Newtonian parameter , we derive the bound , whereas the constraints from the violations of the weak and strong equivalence principles give the bound . This allows a possibility to find the deviation from the -cold dark matter () cosmological model. For the model with the severest constraint is found to be , which shows that this model is hardly distinguishable from the cosmology.
- Received 13 December 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.107501
©2008 American Physical Society