Related papers: How fundamental are fundamental constants?
The paper puts forward a conceptual framework in which the phenomenon of time can be presented and discussed in a proper way. We argue that change is ontologically and epistemologically a more basic phenomenon than time. Time is an abstract…
Classical, Quantum and Relativistic mechanics elect time and space as fundamentals, extracting the measure of motion -velocity- from this static space-time platform. Conversely, the timelessness of Statistical mechanics computes the…
A real aether model of the vacuum proposed by Allen Rothwarf based upon a degenerate Fermion fluid of polarizable particle-antiparticle pairs, leads to a big bang model of the universe where the velocity of light varies inversely with the…
Detecting any evolution of dimensionless in the ratios of physical quantities, such as the fine structure constant, would prove that the Weak Equivalence Principle is violated and lead to a paradigm shift in physics. High resolution…
The quantum nature of gravity remains one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics, with many unified theories predicting variations in fundamental constants across space and time. Here we present precise measurements of these variations…
If the recent observations suggesting a time variation of the fine structure constant are correct, they imply the existence of an ultra light scalar particle. This particle inevitably couples to nucleons through the \alpha-dependence of…
Particle physics has evolved a coherent model that characterizes forces and particles at the most elementary level. This Standard Model, built from many theoretical and experimental studies, is in excellent accord with almost all current…
Since the particles such as molecules, atoms and nuclei are composite particles, it is important to recognize that physics must be invariant for the composite particles and their constituent particles, this requirement is called particle…
The remarkable detection of a spatial variation in the fine-structure constant, alpha, from quasar absorption systems must be independently confirmed by complementary searches. In this letter, we discuss how terrestrial measurements of…
The basic premise of Quantum Mechanics, embodied in the doctrine of wave-particle duality, assigns both, a particle and a wave structure to the physical entities. The classical laws describing the motion of a particle and the evolution of a…
Recent cosmological measurements tend to confirm that the fine structure constant {\alpha} is not immutable and has undergone a tiny variation since the Big Bang. Choosing adequate units, this could also reflect a variation of Planck's…
A method offering an order of magnitude sensitivity gain is described for using quasar spectra to investigate possible time or space variation in the fine structure constant, alpha. Applying the technique to a sample of 30 absorption…
The theory of quantum gravity, in which tetrads emerge as the bilinear combinations of the fermionic field, suggests that in general relativity the interval $ds$ is dimensionless. Several other approaches to quantum gravity, including the…
We present here a set of lecture notes on quantum systems with time-dependent boundaries. In particular, we analyze the dynamics of a non-relativistic particle in a bounded domain of physical space, when the boundaries are moving or…
A review of some basic facts of classical dynamics shows that time, or precisely duration, is redundant as a fundamental concept. Duration and the behaviour of clocks emerge from a timeless law that governs change.
Have our fundamental theories got time right? Does size really matter? Or is physics all in the eyes of the beholder? In this essay, we question the origin of time and scale by reevaluating the nature of measurement. We then argue for a…
In science, as in life, `surprises' can be adequately appreciated only in the presence of a null model, what we expect a priori. In physics, theories sometimes express the values of dimensionless physical constants as combinations of…
A number of positive and null results on the time variation of fundamental constants have been reported. It is difficult to judge whether or not these claims are mutually consistent, since the observable quantities depend on several…
Conformal transformations are obtained by demanding that the form of the metric change by a conformal factor. Nevertheless, this transformation of the metric is not taken into account when a variation of the action is performed. The basic…
Fundamental physics today is best defined operationally: it is the program of identifying the microscopic degrees of freedom, symmetries, and dynamical laws that (i) reproduce the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, General Relativity…