Gravitational lens time-delay as a probe of a possible time variation of the fine-structure constant

Abstract

A new method based on large-scale structure observations is proposed to probe a possible time variation of the fine-structure constant ($\alpha$). Our analyses are based on time-delay of Strong Gravitational Lensing and Type Ia Supernovae observations. By considering a class of runaway dilaton models, where the cosmological evolution of the fine-structure constant is given by $\frac{\Delta \alpha }{\alpha }\approx -\gamma \ln (1+z)$, we obtain limits on the physical properties parameter of the model ($\gamma$) at the level $10^{-2}$ ($1\sigma$). Although our limits are less restrictive than those obtained by quasar spectroscopy, the approach presented here provides new bounds on the possibility of $\frac{\Delta \alpha }{\alpha }\ne 0$ at a different range of redshifts.

9 pages, 4 figures and 1 table - Accepted in The European Physical Journal C

References in corpus (14)

• Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM
• Towards an automated tool to evaluate the impact of the nuclear modification of the gluon density on quarkonium, D and B meson production in proton-nucleus collisions
• Compatibility of the chameleon-field model with fifth-force experiments, cosmology, and PVLAS and CAST results
• The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. XIII. Discovery of 40 New Galaxy-Scale Strong Lenses
• Breaking of the equivalence principle in the electromagnetic sector and its cosmological signatures
• Alpenglow - A Signature for Chameleons in Axion-Like Particle Search Experiments
• Late-time cosmology of scalar-tensor theories with universal multiplicative coupling between the scalar field and the matter Lagrangian
• Primordial nucleosynthesis with varying fundamental constants: Improved constraints and a possible solution to the Lithium problem
• A new era of fine structure constant measurements at high redshift
• Constraints on variation of fine structure constant from joint SPT-SZ and XMM-Newton observations
• A Comparison of Cosmological Models Using Time Delay Lenses
• Non-uniqueness in quasar absorption models and implications for measurements of the fine structure constant
• Search for varying constants of nature from astronomical observation of molecules
• Bayesian approach to gravitational lens model selection: constraining H_0 with a selected sample of strong lenses

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Constraining a possible time-variation of the speed of light along with the fine-structure constant using strong gravitational lensing and Type Ia supernovae observations
• Probing the time variation of fine structure constant using galaxy clusters and quintessence model
• Constraints on dark energy from TDCOSMO & SLACS lenses
• A Joint Analysis of Strong Lensing and Type Ia Supernovae to Determine the Hubble Constant
• Investigating a Possible Variation of the Gravitational Constant Through Gas Mass Fraction Measurements and Type Ia Supernovae Observations