1/137 fine structure variable?

[36grit]

Oh no!, We're all in trouble now, somebody just bought me a subscription to Astronomy Magazine. Ahgggg!

 

Seriously,

Here on page 12 of the new Febuary issue I'm reading about the great "Fine Structure Constant" that is always, no matter what, always equal to 1/137. Until now.

Back in 1998 astophysicist in New Zealand studied some light from distant quazars as it passed through ancient nebulae. The way the light was absorbed revealed the value of the great constant long ago. They found that in the distant past the constant was slightly smaller than it is today.

This info was in large part ignored and rejected until a few months ago when things got real screwy!

 

Scientists using a big telescope in Chilie and the Keck telescopes in Hawaii found that:

In the Southern direction the "FSC" was one part in 100,000 Larger 10 billion years ago than it is today.

and in the Northern direction the "FSC" was smaller than what we observe here on earth.

So "FSC" changes not so much with time, but in what direction we look.

According to the article this violates one of the tenets of Einstein's special theory of relativity.

 

Any theories on how this could be possible?

At first I thought, perhaps it's just some interfierence with earths magnetic field causing some kind of illusion, But then I thought, The big heads would have thought of that. It's just to simple. So I thought to explain it in my own little head theory where this kind of makes sense but, I don't want to bring that up again. So I was wondering if anybody else has some thoughts or ideas on the subject?

 

 

[Arch2008]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant

 

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25673/

 

But get this. While data from the Keck telescope indicate the fine structure constant was once smaller, the data from the Very Large Telescope indicates the opposite, that the fine structure constant was once larger. That's significant because Keck looks out into the northern hemsiphere, while the VLT looks south

This means that in one direction, the fine structure constant was once smaller and in exactly the opposite direction, it was once bigger. And here we are in the middle, where the constant as it is (about 1/137.03599...)

That's a mind blowing result. One of the biggest conundrums that cosmologists face is explaining why the fundamental constants of nature seem fine tuned for life. If the fine structure constant were very different, stars and atoms wouldn't form and the universe as we know it couldn't exist. No theory explains why it takes the value it does which leaves scientists at a loss.

The implication from Webb and co's data is that the fine structure constant is continuously varying throughout space and is merely fine-tuned for life in this corner of the cosmos: the universe's habitable zone. Elsewhere, presumably well beyond the universe we can see, this constant is entirely different.

 

(Dear moderators, the above passage is a quote, not plagiarism. That is why they are called quotation marks.)

 

If the constant is less by a small percent, then there is no nuclear fusion, no stars and no life. If it is too large, then no carbon gets fused and again no life like us. Are we in the Goldilocks Zone of the universe?

Edited January 20, 2011 by Arch2008

[imatfaal]

I think at the moment the jury is out - but the simplest argument is that these measurements are incorrect. It needs a lot more work and other teams will have to find similar results before any volte-face is considered. I will dig out the references I found when I heard about the actual results a few months back.

[swansont]

One has to note that the people finding the small variation in alpha has been the same in these cases — the experiment and followup were the same group. There hasn't been independent confirmation. So it could simply be a systematic problem in the experiment.

[36grit]

me lil head thinks:

 

I read some where that the cosmic radiation back ground displays some slightly varing tempetures. Perhaps the distance that was created in the cooler zones has a slightly different density, or properties, than the space that was expanded in the hotter zones.

 

If this "Fine Line Constant" turns out to be slightly variable. Could it change the way we percieve and/or calculate the speed at which galaxies are moving towards and away from us?