Does the fine structure constant vary? A third quasar absorption sample consistent with varying alpha

Details Does the fine structure constant vary? A third quasar absorption sample consistent with varying alpha Does the fine structure constant vary? A third quasar absorption sample consistent with varying alpha

2002-10-24

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0210531v1

Astrophys.Space Sci.283:565,2003

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12 pages, 3 PS/EPS figures. Invited talk presented at JENAM2002 workshop on The Cosmology of Extra Dimensions and Varying Fund

Scientific paper

10.1023/A:1022518515530

We report preliminary results from a third sample of quasar absorption line spectra from the Keck telescope which has been studied to search for any possible variation of the fine structure constant, alpha. This third sample, which is larger than the sum of the two previously published samples, shows the same effect, and also gives, as do the previous two samples, a significant result. The combined sample yields a highly significant effect, da/a = (alpha_z - alpha_0)/alpha_0 = -0.57 +/- 0.10 x 10^{-5}, averaged over the redshift range 0.2 < z < 3.7. We include a brief discussion of small-scale kinematic structure in quasar absorbing clouds. However, kinematics are unlikely to impact significantly on the averaged non-zero da/a above, and we have so far been unable to identify any systematic effect which can explain it. New measurements of quasar spectra obtained using independent instrumentation and telescopes are required to properly check the Keck results.

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