Fundamental cosmology in the E-ELT era: The status and future role of tests of fundamental coupling stability

Abstract

The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete---if not incorrect---and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. The most fundamental task for the next generation of astrophysical facilities is therefore to search for, identify and ultimately characterize this new physics. Here we highlight recent efforts along these lines, mostly focusing on ongoing work by CAUP's Dark Side Team aiming to develop some of the science case and optimize observational strategies for forthcoming facilities. The discussion is centred on tests of the stability of fundamental couplings (since the provide a direct handle on new physics), but synergies with other probes are also briefly considered. The goal is to show how a new generation of precision consistency tests of the standard paradigm will soon become possible.

General Relativity and Gravitation (in press). Refereed invited report, summarizes the contents of review talks given by the author in 2014 at Moriond (joint cosmology/QCD session), the 2nd Azores School on Observational Cosmology, MIAPP (Cosmology after Planck workshop), ESO (Fundamental Physics workshop) and NORDITA (Dark Energy Interactions workshop)

References in corpus (13)

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• Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC
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• Tests of the CMB temperature-redshift relation, CMB spectral distortions and why adiabatic photon production is hard
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• Varying couplings in the early universe: correlated variations of $\alpha$ and $G$
• Limits on a Gravitational Field Dependence of the Proton--Electron Mass Ratio from H${}_2$ in White Dwarf Stars
• Consistency tests of the stability of fundamental couplings and unification scenarios
• Probing unification scenarios with atomic clocks
• Fine-structure constant constraints on Bekenstein-type models

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The status of varying constants: a review of the physics, searches and implications
• Evolution of the fine-structure constant in runaway dilaton models
• Stability of fundamental couplings: a global analysis
• Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy
• Measuring and characterizing the line profile of HARPS with a laser frequency comb
• Current and Future White Dwarf Mass-radius Constraints on Varying Fundamental Couplings and Unification Scenarios
• Dark energy constraints from ESPRESSO tests of the stability of fundamental couplings
• Further consistency tests of the stability of fundamental couplings
• Current and future constraints on Bekenstein-type models for varying couplings
• Cosmological and astrophysical constraints on tachyon dark energy models
• Observational Constraints on Varying Alpha in $\Lambda (\alpha )$CDM Cosmology
• A search for the fine-structure constant evolution from fast radio bursts and type Ia supernovae data
• Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: II. Synergies with supernovae
• Effect of temperature on measurement of fundamental constants using white dwarfs in Gaia-EDR3 survey
• On Generalized Theories of Varying Fine Structure Constant