English

Variations of Alpha in Space and Time

Astrophysics 2009-11-07 v2

Abstract

We study inhomogeneous cosmological variations in the fine structure 'constant', α,\alpha , in Friedmann universes. Inhomogeneous motions of the scalar field driving changes in α\alpha display spatial oscillations that decrease in amplitude with increasing time. The inhomogeneous evolution quickly approaches that found for exact Friedmann universes. We prove a theorem to show that oscillations of α\alpha in time (or redshift) cannot occur in Friedmann universes in the BSBM theories considered here.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0202129,
  title  = {Variations of Alpha in Space and Time},
  author = {J. D. Barrow and J. Magueijo and H. B. Sandvik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0202129},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages, no figures. Final version: improved discussion and addition of new theorem excluding time oscillations

R2 v1 2026-07-22T08:07:41.824Z