Cosmological constant in chameleon Brans–Dicke theory

Abstract

We consider a generalized Brans–Dicke model in which the scalar field has a self-interacting potential function. The scalar field is also allowed to couple nonminimally with the matter part. We assume that it has a chameleon behavior in the sense that it acquires a density-dependent effective mass. We consider two different types of matter systems which couple with the chameleon, dust and vacuum. In the first case, we find a set of exact solutions when the potential has an exponential form. In the second case, we find a power-law exact solution for the scale factor. In this case, we will show that the vacuum density decays during expansion due to coupling with the chameleon.