Screening Modifications of Gravity Through Disformally Coupled Fields

Abstract

It is shown that extensions to general relativity, which introduce a strongly coupled scalar field, can be viable if the interaction has a nonconformal form. Such disformal coupling depends upon the gradients of the scalar field. Thus, if the field is locally static and smooth, the coupling becomes invisible in the Solar System: this is the disformal screening mechanism. A cosmological model is considered where the disformal coupling triggers the onset of accelerated expansion after a scaling matter era, giving a good fit to a wide range of background observational data. Moreover, the interaction leaves signatures in the formation of large-scale structure that can be used to probe such couplings.