Swinburne
Browse

Exploring variations in the fundamental constants with ELTs: The CODEX spectrograph on OWL

Download (203.08 kB)
chapter
posted on 2024-07-10, 01:26 authored by Paolo Molaro, Michael MurphyMichael Murphy, Sergei A. Levshakov
Cosmological variations in the fine structure constant, α, can be probed through precise velocity measurements of metallic absorption lines from intervening gas clouds seen in spectra of distant quasars. Data from the Keck/HIRES instrument support a variation in α of 6 parts per million. Such a variation would have profound implications, possibly providing a window into the extra spatial dimensions required by unified theories such as string/M-theory. However, recent results from VLT/UVES suggest no variation in α. The COsmic Dynamics EXperiment (CODEX) spectrograph currently being designed for the ESO OWL telescope (Pasquini et al. 2005) with a resolution high enough to properly resolve even the narrowest of metallic absorption lines, R > 150 000, will achieve a 2-to-3 order-of-magnitude precision increase in Δα/α. This will rival the precision available from the Oklo natural fission reactor and upcoming satellite-borne atomic clock experiments. Given the vital constraints on fundamental physics possible, the ELT community must consider such a high-resolution optical spectrograph like CODEX.

History

Available versions

PDF (Accepted manuscript)

ISBN

9780521856089

ISSN

1743-9221

Parent title

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union

Volume

1

Pagination

5 pp

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Copyright statement

Copyright © 2006 International Astronomical Union. The accepted manuscript is reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Language

eng

Usage metrics

    Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Keywords

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC