Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy

2015/05/06 by C. J. A. P. Martins, A. M. M. Pinho, Ana Marta Pinho · 23 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Constant (computer programming) #Cosmological constant #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Coupling (piping) #Coupling constant #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dimensionless quantity #Energy (signal processing) #Equation of state #Fine-structure constant #Hubble's law #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Supernova #Theoretical physics #Type (biology) #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.91.103501

published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 91(10) (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 3 figures

openalex publication_date 2015/05/06 · arxiv created 2015/05/08 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We use astrophysical and atomic clock tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant \ensuremathα, together with type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter data, to constrain the simplest class of dynamical dark energy models where the same degree of freedom is assumed to provide both the dark energy and (through a dimensionless coupling \ensuremathζ to the electromagnetic sector) the \ensuremathα variation. We show how current data tightly constrain a combination of \ensuremathζ and the dark energy equation of state w₀. At the 95% confidence level and marginalizing over w₀ we find |\ensuremathζ|<5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-6, with the atomic clock tests dominating the constraints. The forthcoming generation of high-resolution ultrastable spectrographs will enable significantly tighter constraints.

Citations

• Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae
• Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• Frequency Ratio of Al+and Hg+Single-Ion Optical Clocks; Metrology at the 17th Decimal Place
• Quintessence and the Rest of the World: Suppressing Long-Range Interactions
• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• THEHUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPECLUSTER SUPERNOVA SURVEY. V. IMPROVING THE DARK-ENERGY CONSTRAINTS ABOVEz> 1 AND BUILDING AN EARLY-TYPE-HOSTED SUPERNOVA SAMPLE
• Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC

Cited by

• Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy: II. Extending the parameter space