Variability of the proton-to-electron mass ratio on cosmological scales

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes high-resolution spectral data to investigate claims of cosmological variation in the proton-to-electron mass ratio, finding no significant evidence supporting previous indications of variation.

Contribution

It provides a reanalysis of existing data with different fitting procedures, challenging prior claims of variation in the proton-to-electron mass ratio.

Findings

Previous significance not reproduced

Different fitting procedures influence results

No strong evidence for variation found

Abstract

So far the only seemingly significant indication of a cosmological variation exists for the proton-to-electron mass ratio as stated by Reinhold et al. (2006). The measured indication of variation is based on the combined analysis of H2 absorption systems in the spectra of Q0405-443 and Q0347-383 at z=2.595 and z=3.025, respectively. The high resolution data of the latter is reanalyzed in this work to examine the influence of different fitting procedures and further potential nonconformities. This analysis cannot reproduce the significance achieved by the previous detection.