Effects of variation of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ and quark mass $m_q$ in Mössbauer nuclear transitions

Abstract

High accuracy measurements in Mössbauer transitions open up the possibility to use them in the search for temporal and spatial variation of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, quark mass $m_q$, and dark matter field which may lead to the variation of $\alpha$ and $m_q$. We calculate the sensitivity of nuclear transitions to variation of $\alpha$ and $m_q$. Mössbauer transitions have high sensitivity to variation of quark mass $m_q$ and the strong interaction scale ${\Lambda }_{QCD}$, to which atomic optical clocks are not sensitive. The enhancement factors $K$, defined by $\frac{\delta f}{f}=K_{\alpha }\frac{\delta \alpha }{\alpha }$ and $\frac{\delta f}{f}=K_q\frac{\delta m_q}{m_q}$ where $f$ is the transition energy, may be large in some transitions. The 8~eV nuclear clock transition in ${}^{229}$Th ($K_q\approx 10^4$) and 76~eV transition in ${}^{235}$U ($K_{\alpha }\approx K_q\approx 10^3$) may be investigated using laser spectroscopy methods.

arXiv comment8 pages