Evolution of the fine structure constant driven by dark matter and the cosmological constant

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Abstract

Bekenstein’s model of a scalar field (Formula presented) that affects the electromagnetic permeability (usually identified with “changing (Formula presented) predicts tiny variations of the effective fine structure constant up to very high redshifts, (Formula presented) when the constraints from Eötvös-Dicke-Braginsky types of experiments are imposed. We generalize this model by allowing additional couplings of (Formula presented) to both a dark matter candidate and to the cosmological constant. We show that in a supersymmetric generalization of Bekenstein’s model, the coupling to the LSP, which is assumed to contribute significantly to the dark matter density, can be up to six orders of magnitude stronger than the coupling to the baryon energy density. This allows one to evade the present limits on the nonuniversality of the gravitational attraction due to (Formula presented) exchange and at the same time accommodate the effective shift in (Formula presented) at the level of (Formula presented) reported recently from observations of quasar absorption spectra.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number085044
Pages (from-to)850441-8504410
Number of pages1
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume65
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 15 2002

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