Constraining symmetron fields with a levitated optomechanical system

Abstract The symmetron, one of the light scalar fields introduced by dark energy theories, is thought to modify the gravitational force when it couples to matter. However, detecting the symmetron field is challenging due to its screening behavior in the high-density environment of traditional measurements. In this paper, we propose a scheme to set constraints on the parameters of the symmetron with a levitated optomechanical system, in which a nanosphere serves as a testing mass coupled to an optical cavity. By measuring the frequency shift of the probe transmission spectrum, we can establish constraints for our scheme by calculating the symmetron-induced influence. These refined constraints improve by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude compared to current force-based detection methods, which offer new opportunities for the dark energy detection.