The Equivalence Principle and the Constants of Nature

Abstract

We briefly review the various contexts within which one might address the issue of ``why'' the dimensionless constants of Nature have the particular values that they are observed to have. Both the general historical trend, in physics, of replacing a-priori-given, absolute structures by dynamical entities, and anthropic considerations, suggest that coupling ``constants'' have a dynamical nature. This hints at the existence of observable violations of the Equivalence Principle at some level, and motivates the need for improved tests of the Equivalence Principle.

12 pages; invited talk at the ISSI Workshop on the Nature of Gravity: Confronting Theory and Experiment in Space, Bern, Switzerland, 6-10 October 2008; to appear in Space Science Reviews

References in corpus (8)

• Flux Compactification
• Test of the Equivalence Principle Using a Rotating Torsion Balance
• Constraints on the variability of quark masses from nuclear binding
• Naturalness of exponential cosmon potentials and the cosmological constant problem
• Cosmological Moduli Dynamics
• Eotvos bounds on couplings of fundamental parameters to gravity
• The Nuclear Central Force in the Chiral Limit
• Fundamental constants and their variability in theories of High Energy Physics

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• The Degree of Fine-Tuning in our Universe -- and Others
• Higgs potential from extended Brans-Dicke theory and the time-evolution of the fundamental constants
• Chameleon Field Dynamics During Inflation
• Gravitational Higgs Mechanism in Neutron Star Interiors
• Free fall and self-force: an historical perspective
• Estimations of the cosmological parameters from the observational variation of the fine structure constant
• Dilatonic Topological Defects in 3+1 Dimensions and their Embeddings