Precision Tests of Dark Energy with Tabletop Experiments

One of the great puzzles in modern physics and cosmology concerns the origin of dark energy. It has been discovered in 1998, that our universe expands currently at an accelerated rate. As a prominent explanation, the existence of an unknown substance, called dark energy, which fills the universe has been postulated. However, the true origin of dark energy is completely unknown so far and its discovery certainly constitutes one of the most important tasks that confronts physicists and cosmologists of our time. A rather natural theoretical description of dark energy can be given via hypothetical new scalar fields, which couple to gravity. In fact, the postulation of new scalars is well motivated in particle physics and with the discovery of the Higgs boson a scalar particle has actually been found in nature. Typically, these hypothetical new scalar fields would, if they exist, also lead to new interactions, so- called fifth forces. High precision measurements at solar as well as terrestrial scales were so far unable to detect any such fifth forces. Nevertheless, many high precision table top experiments are in principle able to detect such new scalar fields. This project is a follow-up project to FWF P 34240-N and significantly extends and improves the theoretical analysis relevant for the detection of several dark energy models employing these high precision table top experiments. In addition, the search for dark energy will be pursuit by employing novel new means.