Can a Changing α Explain the Supernovae Results?
Open accessAbstract
We show that the supernovae results, which imply that there is evidence for an accelerating universe, may be closely related to the recent discovery of redshift dependence in the fine-structure constant alpha. The link is a class of varying speed-of-light (VSL) theories that contain cosmological solutions that are similar to quintessence. During the radiation-dominated epoch, the cosmological constant Lambda is prevented from dominating the universe by the usual VSL mechanism. In the matter-dominated epoch, the varying-c effects switch off, allowing Lambda to eventually surface and lead to an accelerating universe. By the time this happens, the residual variations in c imply a changing alpha at a rate that is in agreement with observations.
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In the test field case, one should take into account the effect of variation of constants on astrophysical observations because it can affect local physical processes and bias, e.g., supernova luminosity and indirectly modify the distance luminosity-redshift relation.
“Note however that in such a situation one should take into account the effect of the variation of the constants on the astrophysical observations since it can affect local physical processes and bias, e.g., the luminosity of supernovae and indirectly modify the distance luminosity-redshift relation derived from these observations (Barrow and Magueijo 2000;Riazuelo and Uzan 2002).”
From Fundamental constants: from measurement to the universe, a window on gravitation and cosmology (2025) · cites this paper as Barrow and Magueijo 2000
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- Authors
- Barrow, J. D., & Magueijo, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2000-04-01
- Volume
- 532
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- L87-L90
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2092253463
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 5.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Mathematical Theories and Applications
- Keywords
- variable speed of light, fine-structure constant variation, supernovae, cosmic acceleration, cosmological constant, quintessence, radiation-dominated era, matter-dominated era, cosmological solutions
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