Re: electrons cling more tightly as universe expands?

Jack Sarfatti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...

> 
> On Wednesday, November 26, 2003, at 03:05 PM, Gary S. Bekkum wrote:
> 
> PRESS RELEASE
> Date Released: Monday, November 24, 2003
> Northeastern University
> 
> As Universe Comes Undone, Electrons Cling More Tightly to Protons
> 
> http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=13101
> 
> 
>   Northeastern scientists question the fundamental constants of nature
> 
> BOSTON, Mass. In this topsy-turvy world of changing trends and stormy
> alliances, two Northeastern University scientists propose an answer to why
> even the fundamental constants of nature don't seem constant anymore. The
> bond between electrons and protons, called the fine structure constant, or
> alpha, may not be constant and may have been 200,000 times weaker about ten
> billion years ago. This is a recent astronomy finding that is hotly debated
> because it departs from the standard model of physics and may point to
> modifications introduced by string theory -- the modern "Theory of
> Everything" which attempts to unify all forces in nature.
> 
> According to Drs. Luis Anchordoqui and Haim Goldberg of the Department of
> Physics at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., this apparent tiny
> change in alpha through the years may mirror the apparent accelerating
> expansion rate of the Universe, as if electrons and protons clung ever more
> tightly together as the Universe began to fly apart. The scientists describe
> this process in a recent issue of Physical Review D: Vol. 68, 083513 (2003).
> 
> "The apparent change in the fine structure constant remains controversial,
> partly because it stands in contrast to standard field theory, the basis of
> all the successes in atomic and nuclear physics, in which this constant is
> an unvarying input to all calculations," said Anchordoqui. "We find,
> however, that the apparent change agrees with a variety of different types
> of observations."
> 
> Light signals from exceedingly bright and distant galaxies called quasars
> seem to indicate that the bond between electrons and protons was weaker in
> the early universe. Light left these galaxies about 10 billion years ago and
> thus reflects the state of matter (and the laws of nature) from that epoch.
> This apparent change in the fine structure constant has been observed in
> several independent measurements.
> 
> On Earth, however, studies of a natural nuclear fission reactor which
> operated in Gabon two billion years ago reveal no change in the fine
> structure constant, down to an accuracy of one part in ten million. Thus, if
> the fine structure constant has changed, it did not do so evenly through the
> years. Anchordoqui and Goldberg attempt to reconcile this discrepancy.
> 
> They propose that the apparent change in the fine structure constant is
> coupled to "quintessence." This is a theory of dark energy in which a
> mysterious universal repulsive force, once weaker long ago, now dominates
> over the force of gravity and is causing the universe to fly apart at an
> ever-expanding rate. Anchordoqui and Goldberg worked with one particular
> model of quintessence proposed by Drs. Andreas Albrecht and Constantinos
> Skordis of the University of California, Davis, in 2000. They found that
> their own theory of the fine structure constant, when viewed in the context
> of this quintessence model, provides agreement between the quasar data and
> the Gabon data.
> 
> That is, the fine structure constant was measurably weaker ten billion years
> ago, but as quintessence assumed dominance about eight billion years ago,
> the force between electrons and protons became stronger and "more constant."
> 
> The strength of the electron-proton bond from any matter created anytime
> within the last several billion years is essentially indistinguishable.
> 
> The reason for this lies in the peculiar behavior of the Albrecht-Skordis
> model, in which the quintessence field has all but ceased its variation
> during the present era. The model is also consistent with landmark data
> collected by the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which has
> determined fundamental properties of the universe, such as its age and
> shape, an announcement made in February 2003. Anchordoqui and Goldberg said
> analyzing the light from even more distant quasars will reveal a steady
> decrease in electron-proton binding strength.
> 
> Also, they said their theory could be tested soon with just a ten-fold
> improvement in sensitivity in measuring the acceleration of different
> objects in free fall. This is because a variation in the fine structure
> constant would imply a variation of this type of acceleration as the
> chemical makeup varied, a violation in the equivalence principle introduced
> by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity. Two proposed
> space-based mission will have this sensitivity: the MICROSCOPE mission from
> France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, expected to fly in 2005; and a
> NASA-ESA mission called STEP, Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle.
> "We may be able to test this model of a 'changing' fine structure constant
> within a couple of years with instruments on satellites," said Goldberg.
> "Or, we could continue observing alpha in lab experiments for another
> several billion years to see changes on the order of the quasar values. I'm
> counting on the satellites." For more information, refer to Anchordoqui and
> Goldberg's journal article, "Time Variations of the Fine Structure Constant
> Driven by Quintessence," available at http://arXiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0306084.

Has any of you listed all assumptions on which above findings are based on ?

I think that you could find some errors from there, for example
I would like to ask on what measurements or assumptions the 
used different quintessence potentials V are based on etc. ?

Hannu