Planck intermediate results. XXIV. Constraints on variations in fundamental constants

Journal
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Planck Collaboration
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Ade, P. A. R.
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Aghanim, N.
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Arnaud, M.
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Ashdown, M.
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Aumont, J.
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Baccigalupi, C.
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Banday, A. J.
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Barreiro, R. B.
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Battaner, E.
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Benabed, K.
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Davies, R. D.
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Davis, R. J.
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de Bernardis, P.
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de Zotti, G.
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Delabrouille, J.
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Diego, J. M.
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Dole, H.
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Doré, O.
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Dupac, X.
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Miville-Deschênes, M. -A.
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Enßlin, T. A.
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Eriksen, H. K.
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Fabre, O.
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Forni, O.
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Galli, S.
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Ganga, K.
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Moneti, A.
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Giard, M.
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González-Nuevo, J.
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Górski, K. M.
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Gregorio, A.
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Hansen, F. K.
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Hanson, D.
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Harrison, D. L.
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Henrot-Versillé, S.
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Hernández-Monteagudo, C.
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Montier, L.
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Herranz, D.
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Hildebrandt, S. R.
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Hivon, E.
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Hobson, M.
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Holmes, W. A.
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Hornstrup, A.
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Hovest, W.
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Huffenberger, K. M.
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Jaffe, A. H.
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Jones, W. C.
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Keihänen, E.
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Keskitalo, R.
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Kneissl, R.
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Knoche, J.
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Kunz, M.
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Kurki-Suonio, H.
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Lamarre, J. -M.
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Lasenby, A.
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Lawrence, C. R.
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Leonardi, R.
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Moss, A.
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Lesgourgues, J.
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Liguori, M.
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Lilje, P. B.
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Linden-Vørnle, M.
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López-Caniego, M.
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Lubin, P. M.
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Macías-Pérez, J. F.
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Mandolesi, N.
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Martin, P. G.
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Munshi, D.
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Martínez-González, E.
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Masi, S.
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Matarrese, S.
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Mazzotta, P.
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Meinhold, P. R.
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Melchiorri, A.
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Mendes, L.
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Menegoni, E.
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Mennella, A.
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Migliaccio, M.
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Murphy, J. A.
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Naselsky, P.
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Nati, F.
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Natoli, P.
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Benoit-Lévy, A.
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Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.
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Noviello, F.
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Novikov, D.
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Novikov, I.
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Oxborrow, C. A.
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Pagano, L.
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Pajot, F.
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Pasian, F.
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Patanchon, G.
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Bernard, J. -P.
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Perdereau, O.
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Perotto, L.
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Perrotta, F.
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Piacentini, F.
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Piat, M.
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Pierpaoli, E.
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Pietrobon, D.
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Plaszczynski, S.
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Pointecouteau, E.
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Polenta, G.
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Bersanelli, M.
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Ponthieu, N.
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Popa, L.
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Pratt, G. W.
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Prunet, S.
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Rachen, J. P.
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Rebolo, R.
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Reinecke, M.
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Remazeilles, M.
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Renault, C.
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Bielewicz, P.
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Ristorcelli, I.
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Rocha, G.
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Roudier, G.
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Rusholme, B.
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Savini, G.
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Scott, D.
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Spencer, L. D.
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Stolyarov, V.
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Sudiwala, R.
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Bond, J. R.
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Sutton, D.
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Suur-Uski, A. -S.
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Sygnet, J. -F.
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Tauber, J. A.
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Toffolatti, L.
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Tomasi, M.
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Tristram, M.
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Tucci, M.
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Borrill, J.
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Uzan, J. -P.
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Valiviita, J.
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Van Tent, B.
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Vielva, P.
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Wade, L. A.
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Yvon, D.
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Zonca, A.
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Bouchet, F. R.
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Butler, R. C.
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Calabrese, E.
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Chamballu, A.
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Chiang, H. C.
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Christensen, P. R.
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Clements, D. L.
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Colombo, L. P. L.
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Couchot, F.
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Curto, A.
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Danese, L.
DOI
Description
The development of Planck has been supported by: ESA; CNES and CNRS/INSU-IN2P3-INP (France); ASI, CNR, and INAF (Italy); NASA and DoE (USA); STFC and UKSA (UK); CSIC, MICINN, J.A., and RES (Spain); Tekes, AoF, and CSC (Finland); DLR and MPG (Germany); CSA (Canada); DTU Space (Denmark); SER/SSO (Switzerland); RCN (Norway); SFI (Ireland); FCT/MCTES (Portugal); and PRACE (EU). A description of the Planck Collaboration and a list of its members, including the technical or scientific activities in which they have been involved, can be found at http://www.sciops.esa.int/index.php?project=planckpage=Planck_Collaboration . Some of the results in this paper have been derived using the HEALPix package. We thank Alain Coc and Elisabeth Vangioni for discussions and S. Rouberol for running the horizon cluster, where some of the computations were performed. Some of this work was carried out at the ILP LABEX (under reference ANR-10-LABX-63) and was supported by French state funds managed by the ANR within the Investissements d’Avenir programme under reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02 and by the ANR VACOUL. This work was made possible thanks to the ANR Chaire d’Excellence ANR-10-CEXC-004-01.
Abstract
Any variation in the fundamental physical constants, more particularly in the fine structure constant, α, or in the mass of the electron, me, affects the recombination history of the Universe and cause an imprint on the cosmic microwave background angular power spectra. We show that the Planck data allow one to improve the constraint on the time variation of the fine structure constant at redshift z ~ 103 by about a factor of 5 compared to WMAP data, as well as to break the degeneracy with the Hubble constant, H0. In addition to α, we can set a constraint on the variation in the mass of the electron, me, and in the simultaneous variation of the two constants. We examine in detail the degeneracies between fundamental constants and the cosmological parameters, in order to compare the limits obtained from Planck and WMAP and to determine the constraining power gained by including other cosmological probes. We conclude that independent time variations of the fine structure constant and of the mass of the electron are constrained by Planck to ∆α/α = (3.6 ± 3.7) × 10-3 and ∆me/me = (4 ± 11) × 10-3 at the 68% confidence level. We also investigate the possibility of a spatial variation of the fine structure constant. The relative amplitude of a dipolar spatial variation in α (corresponding to a gradient across our Hubble volume) is constrained to be δα/α = (-2.4 ± 3.7) × 10-2.

Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Volume
580
Start page
A22
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-6361
Ads BibCode
2015A&A...580A..22P
Rights
open.access
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