How strongly does dating meteorites constrain the time-dependence of the fine-structure constant?

Abstract

We review our argument on the nature of the so-called meteorite constraint on the possible time-dependence of the fine-structure constant, emphasizing that dating meteorites at the present time is different in principle from searching directly for the traces in the past, as in the Oklo phenomenon and the QSO absorption lines. In the related literature, we still find some arguments not necessarily consistent with this difference to be taken properly into account. It does not immediately follow that any model-dependent approaches are useless in practice, though we cannot help suspecting that dating meteorites is no match for the Oklo and the QSO in probing the time-variability of the fine-structure constant, at this moment. Some of the relevance to the QSO data particularly in terms of the scalar field will be discussed.

arXiv comment18 pages, 6 figures, review article

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• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• CMB constraints on the fine structure constant
• Unifying cosmological and recent time variations of fundamental couplings
• Revised fits to $\Delta \alpha /\alpha$ in consistency with the accelerating universe