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Article Dans Une Revue Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Année : 2014

The UVES Large Program for testing fundamental physics - III. Constraints on the fine-structure constant from three telescopes

T. M. Evans
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. T. Murphy
  • Fonction : Auteur
J. B. Whitmore
  • Fonction : Auteur
T. Misawa
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Centurion
  • Fonction : Auteur
S. d'Odorico
  • Fonction : Auteur
S. Lopez
  • Fonction : Auteur
C. J. A. P. Martins
  • Fonction : Auteur
P. Molaro
  • Fonction : Auteur
H. Rahmani
  • Fonction : Auteur
R. Srianand
M. Wendt
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Large statistical samples of quasar spectra have previously indicated possible cosmological variations in the fine-structure constant, α. A smaller sample of higher signal-to-noise ratio spectra, with dedicated calibration, would allow a detailed test of this evidence. Towards that end, we observed equatorial quasar HS 1549+1919 with three telescopes: the Very Large Telescope, Keck and, for the first time in such analyses, Subaru. By directly comparing these spectra to each other, and by `supercalibrating' them using asteroid and iodine-cell tests, we detected and removed long-range distortions of the quasar spectra's wavelength scales which would have caused significant systematic errors in our α measurements. For each telescope we measure the relative deviation in α from the current laboratory value, Δα/α, in three absorption systems at redshifts zabs = 1.143, 1.342 and 1.802. The nine measurements of Δα/α are all consistent with zero at the 2σ level, with 1σ statistical (systematic) uncertainties 5.6-24 (1.8-7.0) parts per million (ppm). They are also consistent with each other at the 1σ level, allowing us to form a combined value for each telescope and, finally, a single value for this line of sight: Δα/α = -5.4 ± 3.3stat ± 1.5sys ppm, consistent with both zero and previous, large samples. We also average all Large Programme results measuring Δα/α = -0.6 ± 1.9stat ± 0.9sys ppm. Our results demonstrate the robustness and reliability at the 3 ppm level afforded by supercalibration techniques and direct comparison of spectra from different telescopes.
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insu-03645249 , version 1 (25-04-2022)

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Citer

T. M. Evans, M. T. Murphy, J. B. Whitmore, T. Misawa, M. Centurion, et al.. The UVES Large Program for testing fundamental physics - III. Constraints on the fine-structure constant from three telescopes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014, 445, pp.128-150. ⟨10.1093/mnras/stu1754⟩. ⟨insu-03645249⟩
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