Early-universe constraints on a time-varying fine structure constant

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2001

Authors

Avelino, PP (Author) FCUP; Esposito, S (Author) Other; Mangano, G (Author) Other; Martins, CJAP (Author) Other; Melchiorri, A (Author) Other; Miele, G (Author) Other; Pisanti, O (Author) Other; Rocha, G (Author) Other; viana, ptp (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

Vol. 64

Final page: 4

ISSN: 1550-7998

Publisher: American Physical Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 122 Citations

Scopus - 111 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-SRT

DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.64.103505

Abstract (EN): Higher-dimensional theories have the remarkable feature of predicting a time (and hence redshift) dependence of the "fundamental" four dimensional constants on cosmological time scales. In this paper, we update the bounds on a possible variation of the fine structure constant a at the time of big bang nucleosynthesis (z similar to 10(10)) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) (z similar to 10(3)). Using the recently released high-resolution CMB anisotropy data and the, latest estimates of primordial abundances of He-4 and D, we do not find evidence for a varying alpha at more than a one sigma level at either epoch.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 4