Effects of variation of the fine structure constant $α$ and quark mass $m_q$ in Mössbauer nuclear transitions

Abstract

High accuracy measurements in Mössbauer transitions open up the possibility to use them in the search for temporal and spatial variation of the fine-structure constant α, quark mass mq, and dark matter field which may lead to the variation of α and mq. We calculate the sensitivity of nuclear transitions to variation of α and mq. Mössbauer transitions have high sensitivity to variation of quark mass mq and the strong interaction scale ΛQCD, to which atomic optical clocks are not sensitive. The enhancement factors K, defined by δf f = Kα δα α and δf f = Kq δmq mq where f is the transition energy, may be large in some transitions. The 8 eV nuclear clock transition in 229 Th (Kq ≈ 10 4 ) and 76 eV transition in 235 U (Kα ≈ Kq ≈ 10 3 ) may be investigated using laser spectroscopy methods.