A particle's perspective on screening mechanisms

Abstract Screening mechanisms are a natural method for suppressing long-range forces in scalar-tensor theories as they link the local background density to their strength. Focusing on Brans-Dicke theories, those including a non-minimal coupling between a scalar degree of freedom and the Ricci scalar, we study the origin of these screening mechanisms from a field theory perspective, considering the influence of the Standard Model on the mechanisms. Additionally, we further consider the role of scale symmetries on screening, demonstrating that only certain sectors, those obtaining their mass via the Higgs mechanism, contribute to screening the fifth forces. This may have significant implications for baryons, which obtain most of their mass from the gluon's binding energy. However, a definitive statement requires extending these calculations to bound states. We show that the non-minimally coupled field's interactions with the Higgs lead to an extensive region of the parameter space where screening mechanisms create spatially dependent fermion masses. We say that the field over-screens when this effect is more significant than the fifth forces suppressed by screening mechanisms, as we illustrate for the chameleon and symmetron models.