Reconstructing the dark energy equation of state with varying couplings

Abstract

We revisit the idea of using varying couplings to probe the nature of dark energy, in particular by reconstructing its equation of state. We show that this method can be far superior to the standard methods (using type Ia supernovae or weak lensing). We also show that the simultaneous use of measurements of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the electron-to-proton mass ratio $\mu$ allows a direct probe of grand unification scenarios. We present forecasts for the sensitivity of this method, both for the near future and for the next generation of spectrographs -- for the latter we focus on the planned CODEX instrument for ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (formerly known as OWL). A high-accuracy reconstruction of the equation of state may be possible all the way up to redshift $z\sim 4$.

7 pages, 5 figures. Version accepted for publication in PRD

References in corpus (2)

• Cosmology and the Fate of Dilatation Symmetry
• CMB constraints on the fine structure constant

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Environmental Dependence of Masses and Coupling Constants
• General Relativity and Cosmology: Unsolved Questions and Future Directions
• A new measure of Delta alpha/alpha at redshift z = 1.84 from very high resolution spectra of Q1101-264
• UVES radial velocity accuracy from asteroid observations. Implications for the fine structure constant variability
• Measuring the stability of fundamental constants with a network of clocks
• The Wall of Fundamental Constants
• Constraining Variations in the Fine Structure Constant in the presence of Early Dark Energy
• Linear and non-Linear Instabilities in Unified Dark Energy Models
• Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy
• On the cosmological evolution of alpha and mu and the dynamics of dark energy
• Accurate Extra-Galactic Distances and Dark Energy: Anchoring the Distance Scale with Rotational Parallaxes
• Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: I. Varying Couplings
• Time Variation of Fine Structure Constant and Proton-Electron Mass Ratio with Quintessence
• Cosmic Variation of Proton to Electron Mass Ratio with an interacting Higgs Scalar Field
• Possible time-variability of the fine-structure constant expected from the accelerating universe
• Astrophysical constraints on the proton-to-electron mass ratio with FAST
• Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: II. Synergies with supernovae
• Impact of the matter density uncertainty on the dark energy reconstruction
• Cosmological Ohm's law and dynamics of non-minimal electromagnetism
• Interacting dark energy: the role of microscopic feedback in the dark sector
• JWST observations constrain the time evolution of fine structure constants and dark energy - electromagnetic coupling
• The electromagnetic coupling and the dark side of the Universe
• New constraints on the values of the fundamental constants at a look-back time of 7.3 Gyr
• Cosmological Consequences of Topological Defects: Dark Energy and Varying Fundamental Constants
• On Generalized Theories of Varying Fine Structure Constant