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Can a changing alpha explain the supernovae results?

Jul, 1999
12 pages
Published in:
  • Astrophys.J.Lett. 532 (2000) L87
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199920052011201720230246810
Abstract: (arXiv)
We show that the Supernovae results, implying evidence for an accelerating Universe, may be closely related to the recent discovery of redshift dependence in the fine structure constant α\alpha. The link is a class of varying speed of light (VSL) theories which contain cosmological solutions similar to quintessence. During the radiation dominated epoch the cosmological constant Λ\Lambda is prevented from dominating the Universe by the usual VSL mechanism. In the matter epoch the varying c effects switch off, allowing Λ\Lambda to eventually surface and lead to an accelerating Universe. By the time this happens the residual variations in c imply a changing α\alpha at a rate that is in agreement with observations.
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