Designing dark energy afterglow experiments
  Chameleon fields, which are scalar field dark energy candidates, can evade
fifth force constraints by becoming massive in high-density regions. However,
this property allows chameleon particles to be trapped inside a vacuum chamber
with dense walls. Afterglow experiments constrain photon-coupled chameleon
fields by attempting to produce and trap chameleon particles inside such a
vacuum chamber, from which they will emit an afterglow as they regenerate
photons. Here we discuss several theoretical and systematic effects underlying
the design and analysis of the GammeV and CHASE afterglow experiments. We
consider chameleon particle interactions with photons, Fermions, and other
chameleon particles, as well as with macroscopic magnetic fields and matter.
The afterglow signal in each experiment is predicted, and its sensitivity to
various properties of the experimental apparatus is studied. Finally, we use
CHASE data to exclude a wide range of photon-coupled chameleon dark energy
models.
