New constraint on cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio from Q0528-250

Abstract

Molecular hydrogen transitions in quasar spectra can be used to constrain variation in the proton-to-electron mass ratio, $\mu \equiv m_p/m_e$, at high redshifts ($z\gtrsim 2$). We present here an analysis of a new spectrum of the quasar Q0528$-$250, obtained on VLT/UVES (the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph, on the Very Large Telescope), and analyse the well-known H${}_2$ absorber at $z=2.811$ in this spectrum. For the first time we detect HD (deuterated molecular hydrogen) in this system with a column density of ${\log }_{10}(N/\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2})=13.27\pm 0.07$; HD is sensitive to variation in $\mu$, and so we include it in our analysis. Using 76 H${}_2$ and 7 HD transitions we constrain variation in $\mu$ from the current laboratory value to be $\Delta \mu /\mu =(0.3\pm 3.2_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 1.9_{\mathrm{sys}})\times 10^{-6}$, which is consistent with no cosmological variation in $\mu$, as well as with previous results from other H${}_2$/HD absorbers. The main sources of systematic uncertainty relate to accurate wavelength calibration of the spectra and the re-dispersion of multiple telescope exposures onto the one pixel grid.

30 pages, 6 figures + 14 supplementary figures. Accepted for publication for MNRAS

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