Astrophysical Limits on the Evolution of Dimensionless Physical Constants over Cosmological Time
Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: We report new upper limits on any possible long-term time variation of the ratio of the electron to proton masses, me/mp, the fine-structure constant, α, and the quantity α2gp(me/mp), where gp is the proton gyromagnetic ratio. These limits are based on extremely high precision observations of H2, Si3+, C0, and H0 in high-redshift quasar absorption lines. They amount to 95% confidence ranges of (-7.6 → 9.7) x 10-14 yr-1 for me/mp, (-4.6 → 4.2) × 10-14 yr-1 for α, and (-2.2 → 4.2) × 10-15 yr-1 for α2gp(me/mp), where the elapsed time has been computed for a cosmology with H0 = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1 and q0 = 0.5.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/176422
Authors: Lennox L. Cowie, Antoinette Songaila
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2060787044