Abstract
We briefly review the various contexts within which one might address the issue of “why” the dimensionless constants of Nature have the particular values that they are observed to have. Both the general historical trend, in physics, of replacing a-priori-given, absolute structures by dynamical entities, and anthropic considerations, suggest that coupling “constants” have a dynamical nature. This hints at the existence of observable violations of the Equivalence Principle at some level, and motivates the need for improved tests of the Equivalence Principle.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
V. Agrawal, S.M. Barr, J.F. Donoghue, D. Seckel, The anthropic principle and the mass scale of the standard model. Phys. Rev. D 57, 5480 (1998a). arXiv:hep-ph/9707380
V. Agrawal, S.M. Barr, J.F. Donoghue, D. Seckel, Anthropic considerations in multiple-domain theories and the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1822 (1998b). arXiv:hep-ph/9801253
I. Antoniadis, Topics in string phenomenology, in String Theory and the Real World: From Particle Physics to Astrophysics, ed. by C. Bachas et al., Les Houches Summer School in Theoretical Physics, Session 87, 2–27 July 2007 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2008), pp. 1–44. arXiv:0710.4267 [hep-th]
J.D. Barrow, The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega – the Numbers that Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe (Jonathan Cape, London, 2002)
J.D. Bekenstein, Fine structure constant: Is it really a constant? Phys. Rev. D 25, 1527 (1982)
T. Damour, Testing the equivalence principle: Why and how? Class. Quant. Grav. 13, A33 (1996). arXiv:gr-qc/9606080
T. Damour, J.P. Blaser, Optimizing the choice of materials in equivalence principle experiments, in Particle Astrophysics, Atomic Physics and Gravitation, ed. by J. Tran Than Van, G. Fontaine, E. Hinds. Proceedings of the XIVth Moriond Workshop (Editions Frontières, Gif-sur-Yvette, 1994), pp. 433–440
T. Damour, J.F. Donoghue, Constraints on the variability of quark masses from nuclear binding. Phys. Rev. D 78, 014014 (2008). arXiv:0712.2968 [hep-ph]
T. Damour, J.F. Donoghue, in preparation
T. Damour, F. Dyson, The Oklo bound on the time variation of the fine-structure constant revisited. Nucl. Phys. B 480, 37 (1996). arXiv:hep-ph/9606486
T. Damour, K. Nordtvedt, General relativity as a cosmological attractor of tensor scalar theories. Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2217 (1993)
T. Damour, A.M. Polyakov, The string dilaton and a least coupling principle. Nucl. Phys. B 423, 532–558 (1994)
T. Damour, F. Piazza, G. Veneziano, Runaway dilaton and equivalence principle violations. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 081601 (2002a). arXiv:gr-qc/0204094
T. Damour, F. Piazza, G. Veneziano, Violations of the equivalence principle in a dilaton-runaway scenario. Phys. Rev. D 66, 046007 (2002b). arXiv:hep-th/0205111
F. Denef, Les Houches lectures on constructing string vacua, in String Theory and the Real World: From Particle Physics to Astrophysics, ed. by C. Bachas et al., Les Houches Summer School in Theoretical Physics, Session 87, 2–27 July 2007 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2008), pp. 483–610. arXiv:0803.1194 [hep-th]
T. Dent, Eotvos bounds on couplings of fundamental parameters to gravity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 041102 (2008a). arXiv:0805.0318 [hep-ph]
T. Dent, Fundamental constants and their variability in theories of High Energy Physics. Eur. Phys. J. ST 163, 297 (2008b). arXiv:0802.1725 [hep-ph]
R.H. Dicke, in Relativity, Groups and Topology, ed. by C. DeWitt, B. DeWitt (Gordon and Breach, New York, 1964), pp. 163–313
P.A.M. Dirac, The Cosmological constants. Nature 139, 323 (1937)
J.F. Donoghue, The nuclear central force in the chiral limit. Phys. Rev. C 74, 024002 (2006). arXiv:nucl-th/0603016
J.F. Donoghue, The fine-tuning problems of particle physics and anthropic mechanisms, in Universe or Multiverse, ed. by B. Carr (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007), pp. 231–246. arXiv:0710.4080 [hep-ph]
J.F. Donoghue, K. Dutta, A. Ross, M. Tegmark, Likely values of the Higgs vev (2009). arXiv:0903.1024 [hep-ph]
M.R. Douglas, S. Kachru, Flux compactification. Rev. Mod. Phys. 79, 733 (2007). arXiv:hep-th/0610102
M. Fierz, Helv. Phys. Acta 29, 128 (1956)
V.V. Flambaum, E.V. Shuryak, Dependence of hadronic properties on quark masses and constraints on their cosmological variation. Phys. Rev. D 67, 083507 (2003). arXiv:hep-ph/0212403
H. Fritzsch, The Fundamental Constants, a Mystery of Physics (World Scientific, Singapore, 2009)
Y. Fujii , The nuclear interaction at Oklo 2 billion years ago. Nucl. Phys. B 573, 377 (2000). arXiv:hep-ph/9809549
B. Greene, S. Judes, J. Levin, S. Watson, A. Weltman, Cosmological moduli dynamics. J. High Energy Phys. 0707, 060 (2007). arXiv:hep-th/0702220
D.J. Gross, F. Wilczek, Ultraviolet behavior of non-Abelian Gauge theories. Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 1343 (1973)
M. Heidegger, The Principle of Reason (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1991)
P. Jordan, Naturwissenschaften 25, 513 (1937)
P. Jordan, Z. Phys. 113, 660 (1939)
J. Khoury, A. Weltman, Chameleon cosmology. Phys. Rev. D 69, 044026 (2004). arXiv:astro-ph/0309411
A.O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1936) and 1964
C.J.A.P. Martins, ed., The Cosmology of Extra Dimensions and Varying Fundamental Constants, A JENAM 2002 Workshop, Astrophys. Space Sci. 283(4) (2003)
H.D. Politzer, Reliable perturbative results for strong interactions? Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 1346 (1973)
E. Rabinovici, Spontaneous breaking of space–time symmetries. Lect. Notes Phys. 737, 573 (2008). arXiv:0708.1952 [hep-th]
T. Rosenband , Science 319, 1808–1812 (2008)
H.B. Sandvik, J.D. Barrow, J. Magueijo, A simple varying-alpha cosmology. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 031302 (2002). arXiv:astro-ph/0107512
S. Schlamminger, K.Y. Choi, T.A. Wagner, J.H. Gundlach, E.G. Adelberger, Test of the equivalence principle using a rotating torsion balance. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 041101 (2008). arXiv:0712.0607 [gr-qc]
A.I. Shlyakhter, Nature 260, 340 (1976)
N. Straumann, Wolfgang Pauli and modern physics (2008). arXiv:0810.2213 [physics.hist-ph]
J.P. Uzan, The fundamental constants and their variation: Observational status and theoretical motivations. Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 403 (2003). arXiv:hep-ph/0205340
G. Veneziano, Large-N bounds on, and compositeness limit of, gauge and gravitational interactions. J. High Energy Phys. 0206, 051 (2002). arXiv:hep-th/0110129
A. Vilenkin, Predictions from quantum cosmology. Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 846 (1995). arXiv:gr-qc/9406010
S. Weinberg, Anthropic bound on the cosmological constant. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2607 (1987)
C. Wetterich, Naturalness of exponential cosmon potentials and the cosmological constant problem. Phys. Rev. D 77, 103505 (2008). arXiv:0801.3208 [hep-th]
E. Witten, String theory dynamics in various dimensions. Nucl. Phys. B 443, 85 (1995). arXiv:hep-th/9503124
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Damour, T. The Equivalence Principle and the Constants of Nature. Space Sci Rev 148, 191–199 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-9533-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-9533-6