2003/06/30 by Luis A. Anchordoqui, Luis Anchordoqui, Haim Goldberg · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.68.083513
published as Phys.Rev. D68 (2003) 083513 · Final version, to be published in Phys Rev D
arxiv created 2003/09/04 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/30 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
There are indications from the study of quasar absorption spectra that the fine structure constant \ensuremathα may have been measurably smaller for redshifts z>2. Analyses of other data (149Sm fission rate for the Oklo natural reactor, variation of 187Re\ensuremathβ-decay rate in meteorite studies, atomic clock measurements) which probe variations of \ensuremathα in the more recent past imply much smaller deviations from its present value. In this work we tie the variation of \ensuremathα to the evolution of the quintessence field proposed by Albrecht and Skordis, and show that agreement with all these data, as well as consistency with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations, can be achieved for a range of parameters. Some definite predictions follow for upcoming space missions searching for violations of the equivalence principle.