Related papers: Varying Alpha and the Electroweak Model
Astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant has undergone a small time variation during the cosmological evolution are discussed within the framework of the standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions and of…
Last year I talked at this meeting about a possible time dependence of the QCD coupling constant $\alpha_s$. This year I shall look into the problem once more, without fully repeating the arguments given last year. Astrophysical indications…
We assume that strong and electroweak interactions become strong at very high energies. With this assumption, we compute the low-energy gauge coupling constants $\alpha_i (m_Z)$ as a function of the cutoff scale, taking the supersymmetric…
We give a prescription for embedding classical solutions and, in particular, topological defects in field theories which are invariant under symmetry groups that are not necessarily simple. After providing examples of embedded defects in…
The fine-structure constant alpha does not vary as Friedmann Universes evolve, a conclusion based on assessments of quantum mechanics and electrodynamics. alpha = e^2/(4pi epsilon hbar c), where e is the charge of the electron, epsilon is…
We study the variation of the effective fine structure constant alpha for Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) type dark energy models. The DBI action based on string theory naturally gives rise to a coupling between gauge fields and a scalar field…
I briefly present some current theoretical motivations for time or space variations of the fundamental constants of nature and review current key observational results. I focus on the fine-structure constant, and particularly on…
We review 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 recent quasar data that are…
In this paper, we formulate a generalization of the simple Bekenstein-Sandvik-Barrow-Magueijo (BSBM) theory of varying alpha by allowing the coupling constant, \omega, for the corresponding scalar field \psi\ to depend on \psi. We focus on…
We consider the influence of variation in the fine structure constant alpha on a promising experiment proposed by DeMille et al. to search for variation in the electron-to-proton mass ratio mu using diatomic molecules [DeMille et al., Phys.…
We explore the possibility of modeling electroweak physics in a warped extra dimension with a soft wall. The infrared boundary is replaced with a smoothly varying dilaton field that provides a dynamical spacetime cutoff. We analyze gravity,…
We study the cosmological consequences of a class of Dirac-Born-Infeld models, and assess their viability as a candidate for the recent acceleration of the Universe. The model includes both the rolling tachyon field and the generalized…
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…
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…
We review the observational information on the constancy of the fine structure constant alpha. We find that small improvements on the measurement of ^{187}Re lifetime can provide significant progress in exploring the range of variability…
Astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant has undergone a small time variation during the cosmological evolution are discussed within the framework of the standard model of the electroweak and strong interactions and of…
Assuming a Friedmann universe which evolves with a power-law scale factor, $a=t^{n}$, we analyse the phase space of the system of equations that describes a time-varying fine structure 'constant', $\alpha$, in the…
We consider the possibility of the coupling constants of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge interactions at the time of big bang nucleosynthesis having taken different values from what we measure at present, and investigate the…
We consider classically scale-invariant theories with non-minimally coupled scalar fields, where the Planck mass and the hierarchy of physical scales are dynamically generated. The classical theories possess a fixed point, where scale…
Any variation of the fundamental physical constants, and more particularly of the fine structure constant, $\alpha$, or of the mass of the electron, $m_e$, would affect the recombination history of the Universe and cause an imprint on the…