Investigation of the fundamental constants stability based on the reactor Oklo burn-up analysis

Abstract

The burn-up for SC56-1472 sample of the natural Oklo reactor zone 3 was calculated using the modern Monte Carlo codes. We reconstructed the neutron spectrum in the core by means of the isotope ratios: ${}^{147}$Sm/${}^{148}$Sm and ${}^{176}$Lu/${}^{175}$Lu. These ratios unambiguously determine the spectrum index and core temperature. The effective neutron absorption cross section of ${}^{149}$Sm calculated using this spectrum was compared with experimental one. The disagreement between these two values allows to limit a possible shift of the low laying resonance of ${}^{149}$Sm even more . Then, these limits were converted to the limits for the change of the fine structure constant $\alpha$. We found that for the rate of $\alpha$ change the inequality $|\delta \dot{\alpha }/\alpha |\le 5\cdot 10^{-18}$ is fulfilled, which is of the next higher order than our previous limit.

16 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Constraints on a possible variation of the fine structure constant from galaxy cluster data
• Variation of $\alpha$ from a Dark Matter Force
• Dark energy and Equivalence Principle constraints from astrophysical tests of the stability of the fine-structure constant
• Oklo reactors and implications for nuclear science
• Reappraisal of the limit on the variation in $\alpha$ implied by Oklo
• Non-parametric reconstruction of the fine structure constant with galaxy clusters
• Implications of the Oklo phenomenon in a chiral approach to nuclear matter