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Using machine learning to optimise chameleon fifth force experiments (2024)
Journal Article
Briddon, C., Burrage, C., Moss, A., & Tamosiunas, A. (2024). Using machine learning to optimise chameleon fifth force experiments. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2024(2), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2024/02/011

The chameleon is a theorised scalar field that couples to matter and possess a screening mechanism, which weakens observational constraints from experiments performed in regions of higher matter density. One consequence of this screening mechanism is... Read More about Using machine learning to optimise chameleon fifth force experiments.

Higgs-induced screening mechanisms in scalar-tensor theories (2023)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., & Millington, P. (2024). Higgs-induced screening mechanisms in scalar-tensor theories. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1531(1), 95-103. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15092

We consider the theory of a light conformally coupled scalar field, that is, one that is coupled directly to the Ricci scalar of the gravitational sector. This theory can be written equivalently as one of a light scalar that is coupled to the Standar... Read More about Higgs-induced screening mechanisms in scalar-tensor theories.

Spinning black holes with axion hair (2023)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Fernandes, P. G. S., Brito, R., & Cardoso, V. (2023). Spinning black holes with axion hair. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 40(20), Article 205021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/acf9d6

In this work we construct and analyze non-perturbative stationary and axially-symmetric black hole solutions in general relativity coupled to an electromagnetic and an axion field. The axion field is coupled to the electromagnetic field, which leads... Read More about Spinning black holes with axion hair.

Chameleon screening in cosmic voids (2022)
Journal Article
Tamosiunas, A., Briddon, C., Burrage, C., Cutforth, A., Moss, A., & Vincent, T. (2022). Chameleon screening in cosmic voids. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(11), Article 056. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2022/11/056

A key goal in cosmology in the upcoming decade will be to form a better understanding of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Upcoming surveys, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Euclid and t... Read More about Chameleon screening in cosmic voids.

Dark sector domain walls could explain the observed planes of satellites (2022)
Journal Article
Naik, A. P., & Burrage, C. (2022). Dark sector domain walls could explain the observed planes of satellites. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(08), Article 020. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2022/08/020

The observed 'planes of satellites' around the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies are notoriously difficult to explain under the ΛCDM paradigm. Here, we propose an alternative solution: domain walls arising in theories with symmetry-breaking scalar... Read More about Dark sector domain walls could explain the observed planes of satellites.

Chameleon screening depends on the shape and structure of NFW halos (2022)
Journal Article
Tamosiunas, A., Briddon, C., Burrage, C., Cui, W., & Moss, A. (2022). Chameleon screening depends on the shape and structure of NFW halos. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(4), Article 047. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2022/04/047

Chameleon gravity is an example of a model that gives rise to interesting phenomenology on cosmological scales while simultaneously possessing a screening mechanism, allowing it to avoid solar system constraints. Such models result in non-linear fiel... Read More about Chameleon screening depends on the shape and structure of NFW halos.

Charting galactic accelerations - II: How to ‘learn’ accelerations in the solar neighbourhood (2022)
Journal Article
Naik, A. P., An, J., Burrage, C., & Evans, N. W. (2022). Charting galactic accelerations - II: How to ‘learn’ accelerations in the solar neighbourhood. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 511(2), 1609-1621. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac153

Gravitational acceleration fields can be deduced from the collisionless Boltzmann equation, once the distribution function is known. This can be constructed via the method of normalizing flows from data sets of the positions and velocities of stars.... Read More about Charting galactic accelerations - II: How to ‘learn’ accelerations in the solar neighbourhood.

SELCIE: a tool for investigating the chameleon field of arbitrary sources (2021)
Journal Article
Briddon, C., Burrage, C., Moss, A., & Tamosiunas, A. (2021). SELCIE: a tool for investigating the chameleon field of arbitrary sources. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(12), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/12/043

The chameleon model is a modified gravity theory that introduces an additional scalar field that couples to matter through a conformal coupling. This `chameleon field' possesses a screening mechanism through a nonlinear self-interaction term which al... Read More about SELCIE: a tool for investigating the chameleon field of arbitrary sources.

Fifth-force screening around extremely compact sources (2021)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Elder, B., Millington, P., Saadeh, D., & Thrussell, B. (2021). Fifth-force screening around extremely compact sources. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(August 2021), Article JCAP08(2021)052. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/08/052

Many non-linear scalar field theories possess a screening mechanism that can suppress any associated fifth force in dense environments. As a result, these theories can evade local experimental tests of new forces. Chameleon-like screening, which occu... Read More about Fifth-force screening around extremely compact sources.

Charting galactic accelerations: when and how to extract a unique potential from the distribution function (2021)
Journal Article
An, J., Naik, A. P., Evans, N. W., & Burrage, C. (2021). Charting galactic accelerations: when and how to extract a unique potential from the distribution function. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 506(4), 5721-5730. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2049

The advent of data sets of stars in the Milky Way with 6D phase-space information makes it possible to construct empirically the distribution function (DF). Here, we show that the accelerations can be uniquely determined from the DF using the collisi... Read More about Charting galactic accelerations: when and how to extract a unique potential from the distribution function.

φenics: Vainshtein screening with the finite element method (2021)
Journal Article
Braden, J., Burrage, C., Elder, B., & Saadeh, D. (2021). φenics: Vainshtein screening with the finite element method. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(03), Article 010. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/03/010

Within the landscape of modified theories of gravity, progress in understanding the behaviour of, and developing tests for, screening mechanisms has been hindered by the complexity of the field equations involved, which are nonlinear in nature and ch... Read More about φenics: Vainshtein screening with the finite element method.

Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening (2021)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Coltman, B., Padilla, A., Saadeh, D., & Wilson, T. (2021). Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2021(02), Article 050. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2021/02/050

The Vainshtein screening mechanism relies on nonlinear interaction terms becoming dominant close to a compact source. However, theories displaying this mechanism are generally understood to be low-energy theories: it is unclear that operators emergin... Read More about Massive Galileons and Vainshtein screening.

Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA (2020)
Journal Article
Barausse, E., Berti, E., Hertog, T., Hughes, S. A., Jetzer, P., Pani, P., …Zumalacarregui, M. (2020). Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA. General Relativity and Gravitation, 52(8), Article 81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-020-02691-1

In this paper, which is of programmatic rather than quantitative nature, we aim to further delineate and sharpen the future potential of the LISA mission in the area of fundamental physics. Given the very broad range of topics that might be relevant... Read More about Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA.

Open quantum dynamics induced by light scalar fields (2019)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Käding, C., Millington, P., & Minár, J. (2019). Open quantum dynamics induced by light scalar fields. Physical Review D, 100(7), Article 076003. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.076003

We consider the impact of a weakly coupled environment comprising a light scalar field on the open dynamics of a quantum test mass, resulting in a master equation for the test mass that features corrections to the coherent dynamics, as well as decohe... Read More about Open quantum dynamics induced by light scalar fields.

Influence functionals, decoherence and conformally coupled scalars (2019)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Käding, C., Millington, P., & Minář, J. (2019). Influence functionals, decoherence and conformally coupled scalars. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1275(1), Article 012041. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1275/1/012041

Some of the simplest modifications to general relativity involve the coupling of additional scalar fields to the scalar curvature. By making a Weyl rescaling of the metric, these theories can be mapped to Einstein gravity with the additional scalar f... Read More about Influence functionals, decoherence and conformally coupled scalars.

Experiment to Detect Dark Energy Forces Using Atom Interferometry (2019)
Journal Article
Sabulsky, D., Dutta, I., Hinds, E., Elder, B., Burrage, C., & Copeland, E. J. (2019). Experiment to Detect Dark Energy Forces Using Atom Interferometry. Physical Review Letters, 123(6), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.061102

The accelerated expansion of the universe motivates a wide class of scalar field theories that modify General Relativity (GR) on large scales. Such theories require a screening mechanism to suppress the new force in regions where the weak field limit... Read More about Experiment to Detect Dark Energy Forces Using Atom Interferometry.

Stellar kinematics from the symmetron fifth force in the Milky Way disk (2018)
Journal Article
O’Hare, C. A., & Burrage, C. (2018). Stellar kinematics from the symmetron fifth force in the Milky Way disk. Physical Review D, 98(6), Article 064019. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.064019

It has been shown that the presence of nonminimally coupled scalar fields giving rise to a fifth force can noticeably alter dynamics on galactic scales. Such a fifth force must be screened in the Solar System but if unscreened it can have similar obs... Read More about Stellar kinematics from the symmetron fifth force in the Milky Way disk.

The shape dependence of chameleon screening (2018)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Copeland, E. J., Moss, A., & Stevenson, J. A. (2018). The shape dependence of chameleon screening. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2018/01/056

Chameleon scalar fields can screen their associated fifth forces from detection by changing their mass with the local density. These models are an archetypal example of a screening mechanism, and have become an important target for both cosmological... Read More about The shape dependence of chameleon screening.

Beyond the growth rate of cosmic structure: Testing modified gravity models with an extra degree of freedom (2017)
Journal Article
Burrage, C., Parkinson, D., & Seery, D. (2017). Beyond the growth rate of cosmic structure: Testing modified gravity models with an extra degree of freedom. Physical Review D, 96(4), Article 043509. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.043509

© 2017 American Physical Society. In "modified" gravity the observed acceleration of the universe is explained by changing the gravitational force law or the number of degrees of freedom in the gravitational sector. Both possibilities can be tested b... Read More about Beyond the growth rate of cosmic structure: Testing modified gravity models with an extra degree of freedom.