Constraining Co-Varying Coupling Constants from Globular Cluster Age

TL;DR

This study uses globular cluster ages to constrain possible variations in fundamental coupling constants over cosmic time, providing bounds consistent with previous estimates and highlighting the need for definitive experimental tests.

Contribution

It analytically estimates stellar ages considering varying fundamental constants and demonstrates consistency with earlier constraints, advancing methods to test constant variability.

Findings

Variation of constants aligns with previous bounds

Current constraints are consistent with earlier studies

Highlights need for experimental verification

Abstract

Equations governing the evolution of a star involve multiple coupling constants. Thus, the time it spends as a main-sequence star can be expected to depend on whether or not such constants vary over the time scale of stellar evolution. When the star belongs to a globular cluster, the star's age cannot exceed that of the globular cluster, and the latter cannot exceed the age of the Universe. This fact can be used to constrain or verify the variation of the coupling constants, i.e., the speed of light c, the gravitational constant G, the Planck constant h, and the Boltzmann constant k. We have estimated the age of the main-sequence star analytically from the time it takes to synthesize all its hydrogen into helium under fixed and varying coupling constants scenarios. When we permitted the interrelated variation of the four constants ($G\thicksim c^{3}\thicksim h^{3}\thicksim k^{3/2}$) and differentiated between the cosmological energy and local energy conservation laws, we could show that the variation of the constants established in our earlier studies, i.e., $(\dot{G}/G)_{0}=3(\dot{c}/c)_{0}=(\dot{h}/h)_{0}=1.5 (\dot{k}/k)_{0}=5.4H_{0} =3.90(\pm 0.04)\times 10^{-10} yr^{-1}$ at the current cosmic time is consistent with the present work. Nevertheless, the challenge remains to come up with an experiment, astrometric or terrestrial, that can unequivocally prove or falsify the predicted variation.