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Register a new userRunning vacuum in the Universe and the time variation of the fundamental constants of Nature
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We compute the time variation of the fundamental constants (such as the ratio of the proton mass to the electron mass, the strong coupling constant, the fine structure constant and Newtons constant) within the context of the so-called running vacuum models (RVMs) of the cosmic evolution. Recently, compelling evidence has been provided showing that these models are able to fit the main cosmological data (SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+BBN+CMB) significantly better than the concordance $Lambda$CDM model. Specifically, the vacuum parameters of the RVM (i.e. those responsible for the dynamics of the vacuum energy) prove to be nonzero at a confidence level $gtrsim3sigma$. Here we use such remarkable status of the RVMs to make definite predictions on the cosmic time variation of the fundamental constants. It turns out that the predicted variations are close to the present observational limits. Furthermore, we find that the time variation of the dark matter particles should be crucially involved in the total mass variation of our Universe. A positive measurement of this kind of effects could be interpreted as strong support to the micro and macro connection (viz. the dynamical feedback between the evolution of the cosmological parameters and the time variation of the fundamental constants of the microscopic world), previously proposed by two of us (HF and JS).
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We study particle production and the corresponding entropy increase in the context of cosmology with dynamical vacuum. We focus on the particular form that has been called running vacuum model (RVM), which is known to furnish a successful description of the overall current observations at a competitive level with the concordance $Lambda$CDM model. It also provides an elegant global explanation of the cosmic history from a non-singular initial state in the very early universe up to our days and further into the final de Sitter era. The model has no horizon problem and provides an alternative explanation for the early inflation and its graceful exit, as well as a powerful mechanism for generating the large entropy of the current universe. The energy-momentum tensor of matter is generally non-conserved in such context owing to particle creation or annihilation. We analyze general thermodynamical aspects of particle and entropy production in the RVM. We first study the entropy of particles in the comoving volume during the early universe and late universe. Then, in order to obtain a more physical interpretation, we pay attention to the entropy contribution from the cosmological apparent horizon, its interior and its surface. On combining the inner volume entropy with the entropy on the horizon, we elucidate with detailed calculations whether the evolution of the entropy of the RVM universe satisfies the Generalized Second Law of Thermodynamics. We find it is so and we prove that the essential reason for it is the existence of a positive cosmological constant.
Scalar field dynamics may give rise to a nonzero cosmological variation of fundamental constants. Within different scenarios based on the unification of gauge couplings, the various claimed observations and bounds may be combined in order to trace or restrict the time history of the couplings and masses. If the scalar field is responsible for a dynamical dark energy or quintessence, cosmological information becomes available for its time evolution. Combining this information with the time variation of couplings, one can determine the interaction strength between the scalar and atoms, which may be observed by tests of the Weak Equivalence Principle. We compute bounds on the present rate of coupling variation from experiments testing the differential accelerations for bodies with equal mass and different composition and compare the sensitivity of various methods. In particular, we discuss two specific models of scalar evolution: crossover quintessence and growing neutrino models.
The idea that the vacuum energy density $rho_{Lambda}$ could be time dependent is a most reasonable one in the expanding Universe; in fact, much more reasonable than just a rigid cosmological constant for the entire cosmic history. Being $rho_{Lambda}=rho_{Lambda}(t)$ dynamical, it offers a possibility to tackle the cosmological constant problem in its various facets. Furthermore, for a long time (most prominently since Diracs first proposal on a time variable gravitational coupling) the possibility that the fundamental constants of Nature are slowly drifting with the cosmic expansion has been continuously investigated. In the last two decades, and specially in recent times, mounting experimental evidence attests that this could be the case. In this paper, we consider the possibility that these two groups of facts might be intimately connected, namely that the observed acceleration of the Universe and the possible time variation of the fundamental constants are two manifestations of the same underlying dynamics. We call it: the micro and macro connection, and on its basis we expect that the cosmological term in Einsteins equations, Newtons coupling and the masses of all the particles in the Universe, both the dark matter particles and the ordinary baryons and leptons, should all drift with the cosmic expansion. Here we discuss specific cosmological models realizing such possibility in a way that preserves the principle of covariance of General Relativity.
We point out that in models of macroscopic topological defects composed of one or more scalar fields that interact with standard-model fields via scalar-type couplings, the back-action of ambient matter on the scalar field(s) produces an environmental dependence of the fundamental constants of nature, as well as spatial variations of the fundamental constants in the vicinity of dense bodies such as Earth due to the formation of a bubble-like defect structure surrounding the dense body. In sufficiently dense environments, spontaneous symmetry breaking may be inhibited altogether for $phi^2$ interactions, potentially delaying the cosmological production of topological defects. We derive bounds on non-transient variations of the fundamental constants from torsion-pendulum experiments that search for equivalence-principle-violating forces, experiments comparing the frequencies of ground- and space-based atomic clocks, as well as ground-based clocks at different heights in the recent Tokyo Skytree experiment, and measurements comparing atomic and molecular transition frequencies in terrestrial and low-density astrophysical environments. Our results constrain the present-day mass-energy fraction of the Universe due to a network of infinite domain walls produced shortly after the BBN or CMB epochs to be $Omega_{textrm{walls},0} ll 10^{-10}$ for the symmetron model with a $phi^4$ potential and $phi^2$ interactions, improving over CMB quadrupolar temperature anisotropy bounds by at least 5 orders of magnitude. Our newly derived bounds on domain walls with $phi^2$ interactions via their effects of non-transient variations of the fundamental constants are significantly more stringent than previously reported clock- and cavity-based limits on passing domain walls via transient signatures and previous bounds from different types of non-transient signatures, under the same set of assumptions.
We discuss the fundamemtal constants in the Standard Model of particle physics, in particular possible changes of these constants on the cosmological time scale. The Grand Unification of the observed strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions implies relations between time variation of the finestructure constant alpha and the QCD scale $Lambda_c$. The astrophysical observation of a variation implies a time variation of $10^{-15} / year$. Several experiments in Quantum Optics, which were designed to look for a time variation of $Lambda_c$, are discussed.
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