Oklo Constraint on the Time-Variability of the Fine-Structure Constant

Abstract

The Oklo phenomenon, natural fission reactors which had taken place in Gabon about 2 billion years ago, provides one of the most stringent constraints on the possible time-variability of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$. We first review briefly what it is and how reliable it is in constraining $\alpha$. We then compare the result with a more recent result on the nonzero change of $\alpha$ obtained from the observation of the QSO absorption lines. We suggest a possible way to make these results consistent with each other in terms of the behavior of a scalar field which is expected to be responsible for the acceleration of the universe.

19 pages, 2 jpg and 10 eps figures, delivered at Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants, 16-18 June 2003, Bad Honnef, Germany, to be published in Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer. v2 revises jpg files, adds 2 footnotes and 2 references

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