The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: constraints on the time variation of fundamental constants from the large-scale two-point correlation function

2012/09/06 by Claudia G. Scóccola, Ariel G. Sánchez, J. A. Rubiño-Martin +27
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt1143

18 pages, 16 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

arxiv created 2012/09/06 · openalex publication_date 2013/07/16 · arxiv updated 2015/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We obtain constraints on the variation of the fundamental constants from the full shape of the redshift-space correlation function of a sample of luminous galaxies drawn from the Data Release 9 of the Baryonic Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey. We combine this information with data from recent CMB, BAO and H₀ measurements. We focus on possible variations of the fine structure constant αand the electron mass m_e in the early universe, and study the degeneracies between these constants and other cosmological parameters, such as the dark energy equation of state parameter w_DE, the massive neutrinos fraction f_ν, the effective number of relativistic species N_eff, and the primordial helium abundance Y_He. When only one of the fundamental constants is varied, our final bounds are α/ α₀ = 0.9957_-0.0042^+0.0041 and m_e /(m_e)₀ = 1.006_-0.013^+0.014. For their joint variation, our results are α/ α₀ = 0.9901_-0.0054^+0.0055 and m_e /(m_e)₀ = 1.028 +/- 0.019. Although when m_e is allowed to vary our constraints on w_DE are consistent with a cosmological constant, when αis treated as a free parameter we find w_DE = -1.20 +/- 0.13; more than 1 σaway from its standard value. When f_νand αare allowed to vary simultaneously, we find f_ν< 0.043 (95% CL), implying a limit of ∑ m_ν< 0.46 eV (95% CL), while for m_e variation, we obtain f_nu < 0.086 (95% CL), which implies ∑ m_ν< 1.1 eV (95% CL). When N_eff or Y_He are considered as free parameters, their simultaneous variation with αprovides constraints close to their standard values (when the H₀ prior is not included in the analysis), while when m_e is allowed to vary, their preferred values are significantly higher. In all cases, our results are consistent with no variations of αor m_e at the 1 or 2 σlevel.

Citations

• The fundamental constants and their variation: observational and theoretical status
• Supernova Constraints and Systematic Uncertainties from the First 3 Years of the Supernova Legacy Survey
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Final Redshift Release (DR3) and Southern Large-Scale Structures
• Search for Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant
• The Origin of Chemical Elements
• Early universe constraints on time variation of fundamental constants
• Crossing the phantom divide with parametrized post-Friedmann dark energy
• Limit on the Present Temporal Variation of the Fine Structure Constant
• A New Calculation of the Recombination Epoch
• Crossing the phantom divide: Dark energy internal degrees of freedom