First cosmological constraints on the proton-to-electron mass ratio from observations of rotational transitions of methanol

Abstract

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to measure the absorption from the 2(0) - 3(-1}E 12.2 GHz transition of methanol towards the z=0.89 lensing galaxy in the PKS B 1830-211 gravitational lens system. Comparison of the velocity of the main absorption feature with the published absorption spectrum from the 1(0) - 2(-1)E transition of methanol shows that they differ by -0.6 +/- 1.6 km/s . We can use these observations to constrain the changes in the proton-to-electron mass ratio from z=0.89 to the present to 0.8 +/- 2.1 x 10^-7. This result is consistent, and of similar precision to recent observations at z = 0.68 achieved through comparison of a variety of rotational and inversion transitions, and approximately a factor of 2 better than previous constraints obtained in this source. Future more sensitive observations which incorporate additional rotational methanol transitions offer the prospect of improving current results by a factor of 5-10.

8 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (9)

• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• The Australia Telescope Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB)
• Molecules at z=0.89: A 4-mm-rest-frame absorption line survey toward PKS 1830-211
• Enhanced sensitivity to time-variation of m_p/m_e in the inversion spectrum of ammonia
• Constraining changes in the proton-electron mass ratio with inversion and rotational lines
• Methanol as a tracer of fundamental constants
• Probing isotopic ratios at z = 0.89: molecular line absorption in front of the quasar PKS 1830-211
• Drastic changes in the molecular absorption at redshift z=0.89 toward the quasar PKS 1830-211
• Practical Limitations on Astrophysical Observations of Methanol to Investigate Variations in the Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio

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• Gravitational lensing reveals extreme dust-obscured star formation in quasar host galaxies
• The CO A-X System for Constraining Cosmological Drift of the Proton-Electron Mass Ratio
• Microwave and submillimeter molecular transitions and their dependence on fundamental constants
• An upper limit to the variation in the fundamental constants at redshift z = 5.2
• QSO 0347-383 and the invariance of m_p/m_e in the course of cosmic time
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• Class I methanol masers in NGC253: Alcohol at the end of the bar
• Sensitivity of rotational transitions in CH and CD to a possible variation of fundamental constants
• A study of submillimeter methanol absorption toward PKS1830-211: Excitation, invariance of the proton-electron mass ratio, and systematics
• Linear polyatomic molecules with Π ground state: sensitivity to variation of the fundamental constants
• Constraining cosmologies with fundamental constants I. Quintessence and K-Essence
• A new method for detecting velocity shifts and distortions between optical spectra
• [CI], [CII] and CO emission lines as a probe for alpha variations at low and high redshifts
• Astrophysical constraints on the proton-to-electron mass ratio with FAST
• A new substantive proton to electron mass ratio constraint on rolling scalar field cosmologies
• Methanol absorption in PKS B1830-211 at milliarcsecond scales
• Sensitivity of Tunneling-Rotational Transitions in Ethylene Glycol to Variation of Electron-to-Proton Mass Ratio
• New constraints on the values of the fundamental constants at a look-back time of 7.3 Gyr