A constraint on a varying proton--electron mass ratio 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang

Abstract

A molecular hydrogen absorber at a lookback time of 12.4 billion years, corresponding to 10$\%$ of the age of the universe today, is analyzed to put a constraint on a varying proton--electron mass ratio, $\mu$. A high resolution spectrum of the J1443$+$2724 quasar, which was observed with the Very Large Telescope, is used to create an accurate model of 89 Lyman and Werner band transitions whose relative frequencies are sensitive to $\mu$, yielding a limit on the relative deviation from the current laboratory value of $\Delta \mu /\mu =(-9.5\pm 5.4_{\text{stat}}\pm 5.3_{\text{sys}})\times 10^{-6}$.

Accepted for publication in PRL. Includes supplemental material

References in corpus (8)

• A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34
• Strong Limit on a Variable Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio from Molecules in the Distant Universe
• Revision of VLT/UVES constraints on a varying fine-structure constant
• Impact of instrumental systematic errors on fine-structure constant measurements with quasar spectra
• UVES radial velocity accuracy from asteroid observations. Implications for the fine structure constant variability
• First constraint on cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio from two independent telescopes
• Molecular Hydrogen in a Damped Lyman-alpha System at z_abs=4.224
• Consistency tests of the stability of fundamental couplings and unification scenarios

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• Further consistency tests of the stability of fundamental couplings
• Current and future constraints on Bekenstein-type models for varying couplings
• Methanol isotopologues as a probe for spatial and temporal variations of the electron-to-proton mass ratio
• Laser spectroscopy of cold molecules
• [CI], [CII] and CO emission lines as a probe for alpha variations at low and high redshifts
• Constraints on the varying electron mass and early dark energy in light of ACT DR6 and DESI DR2 and the implications for inflation
• Is the $\bar{\theta }$ parameter of QCD constant?