Estimations of the cosmological parameters from the observational variation of the fine structure constant

TL;DR

This paper constrains Quintessence scalar field models using observational data on the variation of the fine structure constant, testing different potentials and analyzing the coupling constant's probability distribution.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on Quintessence models from observational data and compares two potential types, enhancing understanding of dark energy dynamics.

Findings

Both potential types show that large parameters and strong coupling cause variations in the fine structure constant.

Constraints on the coupling constant $z$ are consistent across different experimental datasets.

The inverse power law and exponential potentials are both compatible with observed variations.

Abstract

We present the constraints on the Quintessence scalar field model from the observational data of the variation of the fine structure constant obtained from Keck and VLT telescopes. Within the theoretical frame proposed by Bekenstein, the constraints on the parameters of the Quintessence scalar field model are obtained. By the consideration of the prior of $\Omega_{m0}$ as WMAP 7 suggests, we obtain various results of the different samples. Based on these results, we also calculate the probability density function of the coupling constant $\zeta$. The best-fit values show a consistent relationship between $\zeta$ and the different experimental results. In our work, we test two different potential models, namely, the inverse power law potential and the exponential potential. The results show that both the large value of the parameters in the potential and the strong coupling can cause the variation of fine structure constant.