Searching for variations in the fine-structure constant and the proton-to-electron mass ratio using quasar absorption lines

TL;DR

This study analyzes quasar absorption lines to test for possible variations in fundamental constants, finding evidence for spatial variation in the fine-structure constant and setting tight constraints on the proton-to-electron mass ratio at high redshift.

Contribution

It provides new evidence for spatial variations in alpha using a large dataset and combines multiple observations to strengthen the statistical significance of the findings.

Findings

4.2 sigma evidence for angular variations in alpha

No significant variation detected in mu at high redshift

Consistent dipole direction across different datasets

Abstract

(abridged) Quasar absorption lines provide a precise test of the assumed constancy of the fundamental constants of physics. We have investigated potential changes in the fine-structure constant, alpha, and the proton-to-electron mass ratio, mu. The many-multiplet method allows one to use optical fine-structure transitions to constrain (Delta alpha)/alpha at better than the 10^(-5) level. We present a new analysis of 154 quasar absorbers with 0.2 < z <3.7 in VLT/UVES spectra. From these absorbers we find 2.2 sigma evidence for angular variations in alpha under a dipole+monopole model. Combined with previous Keck/HIRES observations, we find 4.1 sigma evidence for angular (and therefore spatial) variations in alpha, with maximal increase of alpha occurring in the direction RA=(17.3 +/- 1.0) hr, dec=(-61 +/- 10) deg. Under a model where the observed effect is proportional to the lookback-time distance the significance increases to 4.2 sigma. Dipole models fitted to the VLT and Keck samples and models fitted to z<1.6 and z>1.6 sub-samples independently yield consistent estimates of the dipole direction, which suggests that the effect is not caused by telescope systematics. We consider a number of systematic effects and show that they are unable to explain the observed dipole effect. We have used spectra of the quasars Q0405-443, Q0347-383 and Q0528-250 from VLT/UVES to investigate the absorbers at z=2.595, 3.025 and 2.811 in these spectra respectively. We find that (Delta mu)/mu=(10.1 +/- 6.6) x 10^(-6), (8.2 +/- 7.5) x 10^(-6) and (-1.4 +/- 3.9) x 10^(-6) in these absorbers respectively. A second spectrum of Q0528-250 provides an additional constraint of (Delta mu)/mu=(0.2 +/- 3.2_stat +/- 1.9_sys) x 10^(-6). The weighted mean of these values yields (Delta mu)/mu=(1.7 +/- 2.4) x 10^(-6), the most precise constraint on evolution in mu at z>1.