Astrophysical probes of fundamental physics

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2008

Authors

Martins, CJAP (Author) FCUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: PRECISION SPECTROSCOPY IN ASTROPHYSICS

Pages: 89-94

Conference on Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics

Aveiro, PORTUGAL, SEP 11-15, 2006

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 2 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-004-4FN

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-75485-5_20

Abstract (EN): I review the theoretical motivation for varying fundamental couplings and discuss how these measurements can be used to constrain a number of fundamental physics scenarios that would otherwise be inacessible to experiment. As a case study I will focus on the relation between varying couplings and dark energy, and explain how varying coupling measurements can be used to probe the nature of dark energy, with important advantages over the standard methods. Assuming that the current observational evidence for varying alpha and mu is correct, a several-sigma detection of dynamical dark energy is feasible within a few years, using currently operational ground-based facilities. With forthcoming instruments like CODEX, a high-accuracy reconstruction of the equation of state may be possible all the way up to redshift z similar to 4.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6