Related papers: Subaru Telescope limits on cosmological variations…
Astrophysical tests of the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings are a key probe of the standard paradigms in fundamental physics and cosmology. In this report we discuss updated constraints on the stability of the fine-structure…
We have obtained high-resolution (R $\simeq$ 50,000 or 90,000), high-quality (S/N $\ga$ 100) spectra of 22 very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] $\la$ -2.5) with the High Dispersion Spectrograph fabricated for the 8.2m Subaru Telescope. The spectra…
We have searched for absorption in several common atomic species due to the atmosphere or exosphere of the transiting extrasolar planet HD 209458b, using high precision optical spectra obtained with the Subaru High Dispersion Spectrograph…
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…
Current analyses of VLT/UVES quasar spectra disagree with the Keck/HIRES evidence for a varying fine-structure constant, alpha. To investigate this we introduce a simple method for calculating the minimum possible uncertainty on…
The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a fiber fed multi-object spectrometer for the Subaru Telescope that will conduct a variety of targeted surveys for studies of dark energy, galaxy evolution, and galactic archaeology. The key to the…
Cosmography is a phenomenological and relatively model-independent approach to cosmology, where physical quantities are expanded as a Taylor series in the cosmological redshift, or in related variables. Here we apply this methodology to…
Searches for variations of fundamental constants require a comprehensive understanding of measurement errors. This paper examines a source of error that is usually overlooked: the impact of continuum placement error. We investigate the…
We test the consistency of several independent astrophysical measurements of fundamental dimensionless constants. In particular, we compare direct measurements of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the proton-to-electron mass ratio…
Molecular hydrogen transitions in the sub-damped Lyman alpha absorber at redshift z = 2.69, toward the background quasar SDSS J123714.60+064759.5, were analyzed in order to search for a possible variation of the proton-to-electron mass…
We study a theory in which the electromagnetic field is disformally coupled to a scalar field, in addition to a usual non-minimal electromagnetic coupling. We show that disformal couplings modify the expression for the fine-structure…
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…
The measurement of cosmic shear using weak gravitational lensing is a challenging task that involves a number of complicated procedures. We study in detail the systematic errors in the measurement of weak lensing Minkowski Functionals…
We report a new constraint on the variation of the fine-structure constant based on the analysis of 15 Si IV doublets selected from a ESO-UVES sample. We find \Delta\alpha/\alpha = (+0.15+/-0.43) x 10^-5 over a redshift range of 1.59< z <…
QSO absorption spectra provide an extremely useful probe of possible cosmological variation in various physical constants. Comparison of H I 21cm absorption with corresponding molecular (rotational) absorption spectra allows us to constrain…
We report a discovery of a new high redshift quasar at $z=5.96$, observed with the FOCAS long-slit spectrograph on board the Subaru telescope. The spectrum shows strong and broad Ly$\alpha$+NV emission lines with a sharp discontinuity to…
Although the Hubble constant $H_0$ and spatial curvature $\Omega_{K}$ have been measured with very high precision, they still suffer from some tensions. In this paper, we propose an improved method to combine the observations of…
We measure weak lensing cosmic shear power spectra from the three-year galaxy shear catalog of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program imaging survey. The shear catalog covers $416 \ \mathrm{deg}^2$ of the northern sky, with a…
Testing possible variations in fundamental constants of nature is a crucial endeavor in observational cosmology. This paper investigates potential cosmological variations in the fine structure constant ($\alpha$) through a non-parametric…
A phenomenological model is proposed to explain the recent observed cosmological variation of the fine structure constant as an effect of the quantum vacuum, assuming a flat universe with cosmological constant $\Lambda$ in the cases…