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White Dwarf Spectra for Studies of Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant

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Abstract

We report a newly updated constraint on space-time variation in the fine structure constant, \( \alpha =\frac{e^2}{4\pi {\varepsilon}_0\mathit{\hslash c}} \), from an analysis of white dwarf spectra. We obtain ∆α/α = (0.007 ± 0.087) × 10−6 from a comparison of laboratory spectra of Fe V with those found in the spectra from the white dwarf G191-B2B. The obtained result in this study is used to suggest further improvement in observational technique which would lead to a tighter constraint on ∆α/α.

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  1. Division of Computational Physics, Institute for Computational Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    T. D. Le

  2. Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    T. D. Le

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Le, T.D. White Dwarf Spectra for Studies of Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant. Braz J Phys 49, 256–261 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13538-018-00634-5

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