Constraining the chameleon-photon coupling with atomic spectroscopy

Abstract: We compute bounds from atomic spectroscopy on chameleon fields that couple to the photon. Chameleons are a wide class of scalar field models that generically lead to screened fifth forces and a host of novel phenomenologies, particularly when the photon coupling is included. We account for perturbations to the atomic energy levels from both the scalar field "fifth force" and the scalar field's correction to the electric field. We also account for the electromagnetic interaction's contribution to the scalar charge of the proton, which enables a considerably wider class of models to be tested than without this effect. We find bounds that cover different areas of chameleon parameter space. Some regions are redundant with existing experiments, particularly $g - 2$, confirming that those models are ruled out. Other regions were previously unconstrained, and a range of models spanning approximately four orders of magnitude in chameleon coupling parameters are excluded for the first time.