Can we test Dark Energy with Running Fundamental Constants ?

Abstract

We investigate a link between the running of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ and a time evolving scalar dark energy field. Employing a versatile parameterization for the equation of state, we exhaustively cover the space of dark energy models. Under the assumption that the change in $\alpha$ is to first order given by the evolution of the Quintessence field, we show that current Oklo, Quasi Stellar Objects and Equivalence Principle observations restrict the model parameters considerably stronger than observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, Large Scale Structure and Supernovae Ia combined.

6 pages, 5 figures, final version to appear in JCAP

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• Type Ia Supernova Discoveries at z>1 From the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for Past Deceleration and Constraints on Dark Energy Evolution
• Cosmology and the Fate of Dilatation Symmetry
• Extended Mosaic Observations with the Cosmic Background Imager
• Nucleosynthesis and the variation of fundamental couplings
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• Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: II. Synergies with supernovae
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• Assessing the viability of successful reconstruction of the dynamics of dark energy using varying fundamental couplings
• On Generalized Theories of Varying Fine Structure Constant
• Avoiding unrealistic priors: the case of dark energy constraints from the time variation of the fine-structure constant