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Searching for places where to test the variations of fundamental constants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

P. Petitjean ,
P. Noterdaeme ,
R. Srianand ,
C. Ledoux ,
A. Ivanchik  and
N. Gupta
P. Petitjean
Affiliation:
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Université Paris 6 & CNRS, UMR7095, 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014, Paris, France, email petitjean@iap.fr
P. Noterdaeme
Affiliation:
IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganesh Khind, Pune 411 007, India
R. Srianand
Affiliation:
IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganesh Khind, Pune 411 007, India
C. Ledoux
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Casilla 19001, Vitacura, Chile
A. Ivanchik
Affiliation:
Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of RAS, 194021 Saint-Petersburg, Russia
N. Gupta
Affiliation:
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
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Abstract

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It has been realised in the last few years that strong constraints on the time-variations of dimensionless fundamental constants of physics can be derived at any redshift from QSO absorption line systems. Variations of the fine structure constant, α, the proton-to-electron mass ratio, μ, or the combination, x=α2gp/μ, where gp is the proton gyromagnetic factor, have been constrained. However, for the latter two constants, the number of lines of sight where these measurements can be performed is limited. In particular the number of known molecular and 21 cm absorbers is small. Our group has started several surveys to search for these systems. Here is a summary of some of the characteristics of these absorbers that can be used to find these systems.

Keywords

Galaxies: ISM - quasars: absorption lines - physics: fundamental constants
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Highlights H15: Highlights of Astronomy , November 2009 , pp. 317
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

Gupta, N., Srianand, R., Petitjean, P., Noterdaeme, P., & Saikia, D. J. 2009, MNRAS, 398, 201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Noterdaeme, P., Ledoux, C., Petitjean, P., & Srianand, R. 2008, A&A, 481, 327Google Scholar
Srianand, R., Chand, H., Petitjean, P., & Aracil, B. 2004, PRL, 92, 121302Google Scholar