Colloquium Detail

Possible Evidence for Variations in the Fine Structure Constant

Date: 10/30/2001

Art Wolfe
Professor, UC San Diego

Analysis of 49 quasar absorption systems covering the redshift in inteval 0.5 < z < 3.5 provides statistical evidence for a smaller alpha at earlier epochs: delta alpha/alpha = (-0.72+-0.18)x10^{-5}. The constraints on alpha come from simultaneous fitting of absorption lines arising from the following species: Mg I, Mg II, Al III, Si II, Cr II, Fe II, Ni II, and Zn II. A thorough investigation for systematic effects reveals none which can explain these results. The most significant of these, if removed from the data, would make our result even more significant.