21 cm radiation - a new probe of variation in the fine structure constant

Details 21 cm radiation - a new probe of variation in the fine structure constant 21 cm radiation - a new probe of variation in the fine structure constant

2007-01-25

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701752v2

Phys.Rev.Lett.98:111301,2007

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5 pages, 5 figures, published version + extra figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.111301

We investigate the effect of variation in the value of the fine structure constant at high redshifts (recombination > z > 30) on the absorption of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 21 cm hyperfine transition of the neutral atomic hydrogen. We find that the 21 cm signal is very sensitive to the variations in the fine structure constant and it is so far the only probe of the fine structure constant in this redshift range. A change in the value of the fine structure constant by 1% changes the mean brightness temperature decrement of the CMB due to 21 cm absorption by > 5% over the redshift range z < 50. There is an effect of similar magnitude on the amplitude of the fluctuations in the brightness temperature. The redshift of maximum absorption also changes by ~ 5%.

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