Fine-structure constant constraints on Bekenstein-type models

Leal, Pedro; Martins, C. J. A. P.; Ventura, Luís B.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.90.027305

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…3.2 leads to ζ BSBM = (0.8 ± 1.2) × 10 −4 (5.14) at the one-sigma confidence level. As expected, for the BSBM scenario the fact that the field dynamics is strongly damped close to the present time implies that the atomic clocks bound is much weaker than the one obtained in [25] from the astrophysical measurements of α, cf. Eq.…”

Section: A Class Of Freezing Modelssupporting

confidence: 80%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dark energy and equivalence principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant

Martins

Pinho

Alves

et al. 2015

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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Astrophysical tests of the stability of fundamental couplings, such as the finestructure constant α, are becoming an increasingly powerful probe of new physics. Here we discuss how these measurements, combined with local atomic clock tests and Type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter data, constrain the simplest class of dynamical dark energy models where the same degree of freedom is assumed to provide both the dark energy and (through a dimensionless coupling, ζ, to the electromagnetic sector) the α variation. Specifically, current data tightly constrains a combination of ζ and the present dark energy equation of state w 0 . Moreover, in these models the new degree of freedom inevitably couples to nucleons (through the α dependence of their masses) and leads to violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle. We obtain indirect bounds on the Eötvös parameter η that are typically stronger than the current direct ones. We discuss the model-dependence of our results and briefly comment on how the forthcoming generation of high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs will enable significantly tighter constraints.

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Section: A Class Of Freezing Modelssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Another one is provided by Bekensteintype scenarios such as the so-called Bekenstein-Sandvik-Barrow-Magueijo (BSBM) model [24]. Constraints on ζ in this model were recently updated by [25] who found, at the twosigma level and from astrophysical measurements of α alone |ζ BSBM | < 2.2 × 10 −5 ;…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark energy and equivalence principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant

Martins

Pinho

Alves

et al. 2015

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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show abstract

“…These constraints are therefore about a factor of 6 stronger than the previous analysis in [15], the reason being the inclusion of more recent astrophysical measurements (11 of them plus Oklo, versus only 5 measurements available to [15]) as well as the inclusion of the atomic clocks bound [20] which as not included in the earlier analysis. Finally, we can trivially express our constraint on the coupling as a constraint on the Eotvos parameter, η α < 1.4 × 10 −14 , 99.7%C.L.…”

Section: B Current Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Current and future constraints on Bekenstein-type models for varying couplings

Leite

Martins

2016

Phys. Rev. D

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Astrophysical tests of the stability of dimensionless fundamental couplings, such as the finestructure constant α and the proton-to-electron mass ratio µ, are an optimal probe of new physics. There is a growing interest in these tests, following indications of possible spacetime variations at the few parts per million level. Here we make use of the latest astrophysical measurements, combined with background cosmological observations, to obtain improved constraints on Bekensteintype models for the evolution of both couplings. These are arguably the simplest models allowing for α and µ variations, and are characterized by a single free dimensionless parameter, ζ, describing the coupling of the underlying dynamical degree of freedom to the electromagnetic sector. In the former case we find that this parameter is constrained to be |ζα| < 4.8 × 10 −6 (improving previous constraints by a factor of 6), while in the latter (which we quantitatively compare to astrophysical measurements for the first time) we find ζµ = (2.7 ± 3.1) × 10 −7 ; both of these are at the 99.7% confidence level. For ζα this constraint is about 20 times stronger than the one obtained from local Weak Equivalence Principle tests, while for ζµ it is about 2 orders of magnitude weaker. We also discuss the improvements on these constraints to be expected from the forthcoming ESPRESSO and ELT-HIRES spectrographs, conservatively finding a factor around 5 for the former and around 50 for the latter.

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“…The cosmological implications of these models were first explored by Sandvik, Barrow and Magueijo [4], who also obtained some qualitative constraints on the model. Stronger constraints, benefiting both from additional data and from a more detailed statistical analysis, were later obtained in [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future constraints on extended Bekenstein-type models for a varying fine-structure constant

et al. 2018

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There is a growing interest in astrophysical tests of the stability of dimensionless fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant α, as an optimal probe of new physics. The imminent arrival of the ESPRESSO spectrograph will soon enable significant gains in the precision and accuracy of these tests and widen the range of theoretical models that can be tightly constrained. Here we illustrate this by studying proposed extensions of the Bekenstein-type models for the evolution of α that allow different couplings of the scalar field to both dark matter and dark energy. We use a combination of current astrophysical and local laboratory data (from tests with atomic clocks) to show that these couplings are constrained to parts per million level, with the constraints being dominated by the atomic clocks. We also quantify the expected improvements from ESPRESSO and other future spectrographs, and briefly discuss possible observational strategies, showing that these facilities can improve current constraints by more than an order of magnitude.

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Fine-structure constant constraints on Bekenstein-type models

Cited by 12 publications

References 42 publications

Dark energy and equivalence principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant

Dark energy and equivalence principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant

Current and future constraints on Bekenstein-type models for varying couplings

Current and future constraints on extended Bekenstein-type models for a varying fine-structure constant

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