Testing the weak equivalence principle by differential measurements of fundamental constants in the Magellanic Clouds

S. A. Levshakov1 et al.

1Ioffe Institute, Politekhnicheskaya 26, Saint Petersburg 194021, Russia

The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is tested for the first time in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds in the objects where the overall mass budget is dominated by dark matter. High resolution submillimeter lines of [CI], [CII] and CO observed with the Herschel Space Observatory are used to search for a coupling of the anticipated non-standard fields to the baryonic matter. Averaging over nine molecular clouds, we constrain the variability of the product F = μα2 at the level |ΔF/F| < 2×10-7 (1σ), where ΔF/F = (Fobs - Flab)/Flab. For one cloud in the Large Magellanic Cloud which was observed with the highest available spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, ΔF/F = (-1.7 ± 0.7)×10-7 (1σ). Whether this offset is due to changes in the fundamental constants, or the result of chemical segregation, or merely due to Doppler noise requires further investigations.

[Back to Seminar Programme] [Seminar Home Page] [Department of Theoretical Astrophysics] [Ioffe Institute]

Page created on March 19, 2019.