We study the chameleon field dark matter, dubbed scalaron , in F ( R ) gravity in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch. With an R 2 -correction term required… Click to show full abstract
We study the chameleon field dark matter, dubbed scalaron , in F ( R ) gravity in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch. With an R 2 -correction term required to solve the singularity problem for F ( R ) gravity, we first find that the scalaron dynamics is governed by the R 2 term and the chameleon mechanism in the early universe, which makes the scalaron physics model-independent regarding the low-energy scale modification. In viable F ( R ) dark energy models including the R 2 correction, our analysis suggests the scalaron universally evolves in a way with a bouncing oscillation irrespective of the low-energy modification for the late-time cosmic acceleration. Consequently, we find a universal bound on the scalaron mass in the BBN epoch, to be reflected on the constraint for the coupling strength of the R 2 term, which turns out to be more stringent than the one coming from the fifth force experiments. It is then shown that the scalaron naturally develops a small enough fluctuation in the BBN epoch, hence can avoid the current BBN constraint placed by the latest Planck 2018 data, and can also have a large enough sensitivity to be hunted by the BBN, with more accurate measurements for light element abundances as well as the baryon number density fraction.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.