Related papers: The time variation of the fine structure constant:…
Variance estimation is important for statistical inference. It becomes non-trivial when observations are masked by serial dependence structures and time-varying mean structures. Existing methods either ignore or sub-optimally handle these…
Estimation of time delays from a noisy and gapped data is one of the simplest data analysis problems in astronomy by its formulation. But as history of real experiments show, the work with observed data sets can be quite complex and…
Development of fundamental physics relies on the constancy of various fundamental quantities such as the fine structure constant. Detecting or constraining the possible time variations of these fundamental physical quantities is an…
In this note we observe that Webb and co-workers' observation of an evolving fine structure constant has since been reconfirmed. We also confirm Kuhne's contention that this implies a cosmological constant and exhibit a cosmological…
There are indications from the study of quasar absorption spectra that the fine structure constant $\alpha$ may have been measurably smaller for redshifts $z>2.$ Analyses of other data ($^{149}$Sm fission rate for the Oklo natural reactor,…
We consider several transitions between narrow lines that have an enhanced sensitivity to a possible variation of the fine structure constant, alpha. This enhancement may allow a search to be performed with an effective suppression of the…
The score test statistic using the observed information is easy to compute numerically. Its large sample distribution under the null hypothesis is well known and is equivalent to that of the score test based on the expected information, the…
We present a review of data types and statistical methods often encountered in astronomy. The aim is to provide an introduction to statistical applications in astronomy for statisticians and computer scientists. We highlight the complex,…
Fundamental physical constants play important role in modern physics. Studies of their variation can open an interface to new physics. An overview of different approaches to a search for such variations is presented as well as possible…
We forecast the ability of future CMB and galaxy lensing surveys to constrain variations of the fine structure constant. We found that lensing data, as those expected from satellite experiments as Euclid could improve the constraint from…
In this paper, we introduce a new method for testing the stationarity of time series, where the test statistic is obtained from measuring and maximising the difference in the second-order structure over pairs of randomly drawn intervals.…
We start with a brief account of the latest analysis of the Oklo phenomenon providing the still most stringent constraint on time-variability of the fine- structure constant $\alpha$. Comparing this with the recent result from the…
The time variation of fundamental mass scales can have profound cosmological implications. We investigate a particular model of crossover quintessence which is compatible with all present cosmological observations. This model can also…
We provide an analytical argument for understanding the likely nature of parameter shifts between those coming from an analysis of a dataset and from a subset of that dataset, assuming differences are down to noise and any intrinsic…
In this Reply, using G.de.A.Marques' comment, we correct calculations and results presented in [Phys.Lett.B 632(2006) 151-154] about corrections to the fine structure constant in the spacetime of a cosmic string from the generalized…
We review some of the history and properties of theories for the variation of the gravitation and fine structure 'constants'. We highlight some general features of the cosmological models that exist in these theories with reference to…
One of the topical problems of contemporary physics is a possible variability of the fundamental constants. Here we consider possible variability of two dimensionless constants which are most important for calculation of atomic and…
This paper presents an observing methodology for calibrated measurements of radio interference levels and compare these with threshold interference limits that have been established for interference entering the bands allocated to the Radio…
We derive the formulae for the time variation of the gravitational "constant" G and of the fine structure "constant" \alpha in various models with extra dimensions and analyze their consistency with the available observational data for…
Earlier we showed that the fine structure of the spectrum of amplitude variations in the results of measurements of the processes of different nature (in other words, the fine structure of the dispersion of results or the pattern of the…