Constraining fundamental physics with combined variations of fundamental constants

Abstract

We discuss how existing astrophysical measurements of various combinations of the fine-structure constant $α$, the proton-to-electron mass ratio $μ$ and the proton gyromagnetic ratio g$_{p}$ towards the radio source PKS1413+135 can be used to individually constrain each of these fundamental couplings. While the accuracy of the available measurements is not yet sufficient to test the spatial dipole scenario discussed in this workshop (and elsewhere in this volume), our analysis serves as a proof of concept as new observational facilities will soon allow significantly more robust tests. Importantly, these measurements can also be used to obtain constraints on certain classes of unification scenarios, and we compare the constraints obtained for PKS1413+135 with those previously obtained from local atomic clock measurements (and discussed in the previous contribution).

To appear in the Proceedings of the Sesto Conference on Varying Fundamental Constants and Dynamical Dark Energy (Sesto, Italy, July 8-13, 2013)