Supernova Cosmology and the Fine Structure Constant

Abstract

We study the dependence of the peak luminosity of Type Ia supernovae on the fine structure constant $\alpha$. We find that decreasing (increasing) $\alpha$ enhances (reduces) the luminosity. Future experiments like SNAP could determine the variation of $\alpha$ to a precision of $10^{-2}$.

arXiv comment6 pages

References in corpus (2)

• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Possible evidence for a variable fine structure constant from QSO absorption lines: motivations, analysis and results

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