SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2210.10204

Obtaining a scalar fifth force for matter via a conformal coupling to the scalar field

Abstract

In the framework of special relativity (SR), I propose that matter conformally couples to a scalar field through the Lagrangian density of matter, whether matter is characterized by classical or by quantum (statistical) mechanics. The largest interaction strength of the scalar-mediated force can achieve the order of $1/\Lambda_E^2$ with the cosmological constant $\Lambda_E\approx 2.4\,\rm{meV}$. This is about 60 orders of magnitude larger than Newtonian gravity, i.e., ${(M_{\mathrm{Pl}}/\Lambda_E)}^2\sim 10^{60}$, where $M_{\mathrm{Pl}}\approx2.4\times 10^{18}\, \rm{GeV} $ is the reduced Planck energy. However, the discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry of the conformal coupling does not allow a massless scalar field, satisfying the constraint that no evidence of the long range force is observed. The interaction range of the force is inversely proportional to the square root of the ambient density. Therefore, in the general situation in which the ambient density is larger than the current cosmic density, the interaction range is always smaller than $1/\Lambda_E \approx 80\, \mu\rm{m}$. The form of general relativity (GR) still holds even when the energy-momentum tensors of the quintessence and the conformal interaction are included. The main purpose here is to overcome the puzzle in \cite{hcz2}, i.e., which frame is physical.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Hai-Chao Zhang. 2022-10-18. Obtaining a scalar fifth force for matter via a conformal coupling to the scalar field. https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.10204

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc