English

Constraints on variation in $\alpha$ and $m_e$ from WMAP 7-year data

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-05-18 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We update the constraints on the time variation of the fine structure constant α\alpha and the electron mass mem_e, using the latest CMB data, including the 7-yr release of WMAP. We made statistical analyses of the variation of each one of the constants and of their joint variation, together with the basic set of cosmological parameters. We used a modified version of CAMB and COSMOMC to account for these possible variations. We present bounds on the variation of the constants for different data sets, and show how results depend on them. When using the latest CMB data plus the power spectrum from Sloan Digital Sky Survey LRG, we find that α/α0=0.986±0.007\alpha / \alpha_0=0.986 \pm 0.007 at 1-σ\sigma level, when the 6 basic cosmological parameters were fitted, and only variation in α\alpha was allowed. The constraints in the case of variation in both constants are α/α0=0.986±0.009 \alpha / \alpha_0= 0.986 \pm 0.009 and me/me0=0.999±0.035m_e / m_{e0} = 0.999 \pm 0.035. In the case of only variation in mem_e, the bound is me/me0=0.964±0.025m_e /m_{e0}=0.964 \pm 0.025.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1002.1603,
  title  = {Constraints on variation in $\alpha$ and $m_e$ from WMAP 7-year data},
  author = {Susana. J. Landau and Claudia G. Scóccola},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.1603},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:44:33.833Z