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- Title
- Indications of a spatial variation of the fine structure constant
- Author(s)
- Webb, J. K.; King, J. A.; Murphy, M. T.; Flambaum, V. V.; Carswell, R. F.; Bainbridge, M. B.
- Abstract
- We previously reported observations of quasar spectra from the Keck telescope suggesting a smaller value of the fine structure constant, alpha, at high redshift. A new sample of 153 measurements from the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), probing a different direction in the universe, also depends on redshift, but in the opposite sense, that is, alpha appears on average to be larger in the past. The combined dataset is well represented by a spatial dipole, significant at the 4.1 sigma level, in the direction right ascension 17.3 +/- 0.6 hours, declination -61 +/- 9 degrees. A detailed analysis for systematics, using observations duplicated at both telescopes, reveals none which are likely to emulate this result.
- Publication type
- Journal article
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
- Source
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, no. 19 (Nov 2011), article no. 191101
- Publication year
- 2011
- FOR Code(s)
- 02 Physical Sciences
- Keyword(s)
- High redshift; Quasar spectra; Spatial variation
- Publisher
- American Physical Society
- ISSN
- 1079-7114
- Publisher URL
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.191101
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2011 American Physical Society. The published version of the paper is reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher.
- Additional information
- This work is supported by the Australian Research Council.
- Full text
- Peer reviewed
