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Register a new userConstraint on the time variation of the fine-structure constant with the SDSS-III/BOSS DR12 quasar sample
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From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12, which covers the full Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) footprint, we investigate the possible variation of the fine-structure constant over cosmological time-scales. We analyse the largest quasar sample considered so far in the literature, which contains 13175 spectra (10363 from SDSS-III/BOSS DR12 + 2812 from SDSS-II DR7) with redshift $z<,$1. We apply the emission-line method on the [O III] doublet (4960, 5008 A) and obtain $Deltaalpha/alpha= left(0.9 pm 1.8right)times10^{-5}$ for the relative variation of the fine-structure constant. We also investigate the possible sources of systematics: misidentification of the lines, sky OH lines, H$,beta$ and broad line contamination, Gaussian and Voigt fitting profiles, optimal wavelength range for the Gaussian fits, chosen polynomial order for the continuum spectrum, signal-to-noise ratio and good quality of the fits. The uncertainty of the measurement is dominated by the sky subtraction. The results presented in this work, being systematics limited, have sufficient statistics to constrain robustly the variation of the fine-structure constant in redshift bins ($Delta zapprox$ 0.06) over the last 7.9 Gyr. In addition, we study the [Ne III] doublet (3870, 3969 A) present in 462 quasar spectra and discuss the systematic effects on using these emission lines to constrain the fine-structure constant variation. Better constraints on $Deltaalpha/alpha $ ($<$10$^{-6}$) using the emission-line method would be possible with high-resolution spectroscopy and large galaxy/qso surveys.
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We propose a new method to probe for variations in the fine structure constant alpha using clusters of galaxies, opening up a window on a new redshift range for such constraints. Hot clusters shine in the X-ray mainly due to bremsstrahlung, while they leave an imprint on the CMB frequency spectrum through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. These two physical processes can be characterized by the integrated Comptonization parameter Y_SZ DA^2 and its X-ray counterpart, the Y_X parameter. The ratio of these two quantities is expected to be constant from numerical simulations and current observations. We show that this fact can be exploited to constrain alpha, as the ratio of the two parameters depends on the fine structure constant as alpha^{3.5}. We determine current constraints from a combination of Planck SZ and XMM-Newton data, testing different models of variation of alpha. When fitting for a constant value of alpha, we find that current constraints are at the 1% level, comparable with current CMB constraints. We discuss strategies for further improving these constraints by almost an order of magnitude.
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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 constant, alpha. As a result, the theory we consider can explain the non-zero reported variation in the evolution of alpha by purely considering disformal couplings. We also find that if matter and photons are coupled in the same way to the scalar field, disformal couplings itself do not lead to a variation of the fine-structure constant. A number of scenarios are discussed consistent with the current astrophysical, geochemical, laboratory and the cosmic microwave background radiation constraints on the cosmological evolution of alpha. The models presented are also consistent with the current type Ia supernovae constraints on the effective dark energy equation of state. We find that the Oklo bound in particular puts strong constraints on the model parameters. From our numerical results, we find that the introduction of a non-minimal electromagnetic coupling enhances the cosmological variation in alpha. Better constrained data is expected to be reported by ALMA and with the forthcoming generation of high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs such as PEPSI, ESPRESSO, and ELT-HIRES. Furthermore, an expected increase in the sensitivity of molecular and nuclear clocks will put a more stringent constraint on current laboratory measurements.
The brightest southern quasar above redshift $z=1$, HE 0515$-$4414, with its strong intervening metal absorption-line system at $z_{abs}=1.1508$, provides a unique opportunity to precisely measure or limit relative variations in the fine-structure constant ($Deltaalpha/alpha$). A variation of just $sim$3 parts per million (ppm) would produce detectable velocity shifts between its many strong metal transitions. Using new and archival observations from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) we obtain an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum (peaking at S/N $approx250$ pix$^{-1}$). This provides the most precise measurement of $Deltaalpha/alpha$ from a single absorption system to date, $Deltaalpha/alpha=-1.42pm0.55_{rm stat}pm0.65_{rm sys}$ ppm, comparable with the precision from previous, large samples of $sim$150 absorbers. The largest systematic error in all (but one) previous similar measurements, including the large samples, was long-range distortions in the wavelength calibration. These would add a $sim$2 ppm systematic error to our measurement and up to $sim$10 ppm to other measurements using Mg and Fe transitions. However, we corrected the UVES spectra using well-calibrated spectra of the same quasar from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), leaving a residual 0.59 ppm systematic uncertainty, the largest contribution to our total systematic error. A similar approach, using short observations on future, well-calibrated spectrographs to correct existing, high S/N spectra, would efficiently enable a large sample of reliable $Deltaalpha/alpha$ measurements. The high S/N UVES spectrum also provides insights into analysis difficulties, detector artifacts and systematic errors likely to arise from 25-40-m telescopes.
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