228 research outputs found
Does the proton-to-electron mass ratio vary in the course of cosmological evolution?
The possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio was
estimated by measuring the H_2 wavelengths in the high-resolution spectrum of
the quasar Q~0347-382. Our analysis yielded an estimate for the possible
deviation of \mu value in the past, 10 Gyr ago: for the unweighted value
; for the weighted value Since the significance of the both
results does not exceed 3, further observations are needed to increase
the statistical significance. In any case, this result may be considered as the
most stringent estimate on an upper limit of a possible variation of \mu (95%
C.L.): This value serves as an
effective tool for selection of models determining a relation between possible
cosmological deviations of the fine-structure constant \alpha and the
elementary particle masses (m, m, etc.).Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Talk presented at the JENAM 2002 Workshop on
Varying Fundamental Constants, Porto, 4th September 2002. To be published in
the Conference Proceeding
Testing cosmological variability of fundamental constants
One of the topical problems of contemporary physics is a possible variability
of the fundamental constants. Here we consider possible variability of two
dimensionless constants which are most important for calculation of atomic and
molecular spectra (in particular, the X-ray ones): the fine-structure constant
\alpha=e^2/\hbar c and the proton-to-electron mass ratio \mu=m_p/m_e. Values of
the physical constants in the early epochs are estimated directly from
observations of quasars - the most powerful sources of radiation, whose spectra
were formed when the Universe was several times younger than now. A critical
analysis of the available results leads to the conclusion that present-day data
do not reveal any statistically significant evidence for variations of the
fundamental constants under study. The most reliable upper limits to possible
variation rates at the 95% confidence level, obtained in our work, read:
|\dot\alpha/\alpha| < (1.4e-14)/yr,
|\dot\mu/\mu| < (1.5e-14)/yr
on the average over the last ten billion years.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, LaTeX using aipproc.sty (included). In:
X-ray and Inner-Shell Processes, R.W. Dunford, D.S. Gemmel, E.P. Kanter, B.
Kraessig, S.H. Southworth, L. Young (eds.), AIP Conf. Proc. (AIP, Melville,
2000) vol. 506, p. 50
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