Dilatons with intrinsic decouplings

Abstract

In this paper, we show that there exists a class of dilaton models with non-trivial scalar-Ricci and scalar-matter couplings that strongly reduces observational deviations from general relativity in the dust limit. Essentially, depending on the coupling between the dilaton and the fundamental matter fields, various strengths of decoupling can appear. They range from no decoupling at all to a total decoupling state. In this latter case, the theory becomes indistinguishable from general relativity (in the dust limit), as all dilatonic effects can be re-absorbed through a simple change of unit. Furthermore, for particular decouplings, we show that the phenomenology used to constrain theories from universality of free fall observations is significantly different from what is commonly used. Finally, from a fundamental perspective, the class of non-dynamical decouplings proposed in this paper might play a role in the current non-observation of any deviation from general relativity (in both tests of the equivalence principle and of the parametrized post-Newtonian formalism).