Material Size Dependence on Fundamental Constants

TL;DR

This paper investigates how material sizes depend on fundamental constants, providing calculations and experimental data to aid in detecting variations in constants like alpha and mu through precision measurements.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive estimates of how lattice constants and bond lengths in materials depend on fundamental constants, crucial for interpreting experimental searches for their variation.

Findings

Calculated dependence of lattice constants on alpha and mu.

Experimental estimates of bond length variations.

Guidelines for interpreting precision measurement experiments.

Abstract

Precise experimental setups for detection of variation of fundamental constants, scalar dark matter, or gravitational waves, such as laser interferometers, optical cavities and resonant-mass detectors, are directly linked to measuring changes in material size. Here we present calculated and experiment-derived estimates for both $\alpha$- and $\mu$-dependence of lattice constants and bond lengths of selected solid-state materials and diatomic molecules that are needed for interpretation of such experiments.