Impact of the cosmic neutrino background on long-range force searches

Abstract

Light bosons can mediate long-range forces. We show that light bosonic mediators interacting with a background medium, in particular, with the cosmic neutrino background (C$\nu$B), may induce medium-dependent masses which could effectively screen long-range forces from detection. This leads to profound implications for long-range force searches in e.g. the E\"ot-Wash, MICROSCOPE, and lunar laser-ranging (LLR) experiments. For instance, we find that when the coupling of the mediator to neutrinos is above $3\times10^{-10}$ or $5\times10^{-13}$, bounds from LLR and experiments employing the Sun as an attractor, respectively, would be entirely eliminated. Larger values of the coupling can also substantially alleviate bounds from searches conducted at shorter distances.