Time-Varying <span class="aps-inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>α</mi></math></span> and Particle Physics

Tom Banks; Michael Dine; Michael Douglas

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.131301

Time-Varying $α$ and Particle Physics

Tom Banks, Michael Dine, and Michael Douglas

Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 131301 – Published 15 March 2002

Abstract

We argue that models in which an observable variation of the fine structure constant is explained by motion of a cosmic scalar field are not stable under renormalization and require massive fine-tuning that cannot be explained by any known mechanism.

Received 9 January 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.131301

Authors & Affiliations

Tom Banks^1,2,*, Michael Dine^2,†, and Michael Douglas^1,3,‡

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University NHETC, Piscataway, New York
²Department of Physics, University of California–Santa Cruz/SCIPP, Santa Cruz, California
³I.H.E.S., Bures-sur-Yvette 91440, France

^*Email address: banks@physics.rutgers.edu
^†Email address: dine@scipp.ucsc.edu
^‡Email address: mrd@physics.rutgers.edu