Mu may have changed over the lifetime of the universe
According to an articne in New Scientist based on a paper in Physical Review Letters, a group is claiming evidence that mu (the ratio of the mass of the proton to the mass of the electron) may have changed over time. Obviously, this would be a significant thing, and this result hasn't been confirmed yet, so it's very early.
Do the astrophysicists around these parts happen to know anything about this or the group that is making the claim?
Do the astrophysicists around these parts happen to know anything about this or the group that is making the claim?
2 Comments:
One of the other postdocs at NRAO studies changes in fundamental constants. Usually what happens is that someone gets a 3-sigma result. Then they get better data, beating the error bars down by a factor of two. At the end, they still get a 3-sigma result. It doesn't inspire confidence....
By the way, have you seen their plot? (I think it's in Phys Rev Lett.) If they didn't include the best-fit lines, would you be able to see the effect they claim in the data?
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