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Future constraints on variations of the fine structure constant from combined CMB and weak lensing measurements

Matteo Martinelli1, Eloisa Menegoni2, and Alessandro Melchiorri3

  • 1SISSA/ISAS, Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
  • 2I.C.R.A. and INFN, Universita’ di Roma “La Sapienza”, Ple Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy
  • 3Physics Department and INFN, Universita’ di Roma “La Sapienza”, Ple Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy

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Phys. Rev. D 85, 123526 – Published 18 June, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.85.123526

Abstract

We forecast the ability of future cosmic microwave background and galaxy lensing surveys to constrain variations of the fine structure constant. We found that lensing data, as those expected from satellite experiments as Euclid could improve the constraint from future cosmic microwave background experiments leading to a Δα/α=8×10−4 accuracy. A variation of the fine structure constant α is strongly degenerate with the Hubble constant H0 and with inflationary parameters as the scalar spectral index ns. These degeneracies may cause significant biases in the determination of cosmological parameters if a variation in α as large as ∼0.5% is present at the epoch of recombination.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. D 85, 123526– Published 18 June, 2012
  • Received 23 February 2012

© 2012 American Physical Society

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