English

Does the proton-to-electron mass ratio vary in the course of cosmological evolution?

Astrophysics 2009-11-07 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

The possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio was estimated by measuring the H_2 wavelengths in the high-resolution spectrum of the quasar Q~0347-382. Our analysis yielded an estimate for the possible deviation of \mu value in the past, 10 Gyr ago: for the unweighted value Δμ/μ=(3.0±2.4)×105\Delta \mu / \mu = (3.0\pm2.4)\times10^{-5}; for the weighted value Δμ/μ=(5.02±1.82)×105 \Delta \mu / \mu = (5.02\pm1.82)\times10^{-5} Since the significance of the both results does not exceed 3σ\sigma, further observations are needed to increase the statistical significance. In any case, this result may be considered as the most stringent estimate on an upper limit of a possible variation of \mu (95% C.L.): Δμ/μ<8×105 |\Delta \mu / \mu| < 8\times 10^{-5} This value serves as an effective tool for selection of models determining a relation between possible cosmological deviations of the fine-structure constant \alpha and the elementary particle masses (mp_p, me_e, etc.).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0210299,
  title  = {Does the proton-to-electron mass ratio vary in the course of cosmological evolution?},
  author = {A. Ivanchik and P. Petitjean and E. Rodriguez and D. Varshalovich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0210299},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure. Talk presented at the JENAM 2002 Workshop on Varying Fundamental Constants, Porto, 4th September 2002. To be published in the Conference Proceedings