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Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 101302 (2004) [4 pages]

Highly Accurate H2 Lyman and Werner Band Laboratory Measurements and an Improved Constraint on a Cosmological Variation of the Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio

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W. Ubachs *
Laser Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

E. Reinhold
Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, Université de Paris-Sud, 505 Campus d’Orsay, 91405 Orsay, France

Received 22 September 2003; revised 11 December 2003; published 12 March 2004

Transition wavelengths on a large set of H2 Lyman and Werner band spectral lines have been obtained at an accuracy of 5×10-8, using a narrow band tunable extreme ultraviolet laser. The data are used to determine a constraint on a possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio (μ=Mp/me) from a comparison with highly redshifted spectral data of quasistellar objects, yielding a fractional change in the mass ratio of Δμ/μ=-0.5±3.6×10-5 (2σ), which would correspond to a temporal change of d/dt(Δμ/μ)=-0.4±3.0×10-15 per year (2σ) if a linear cosmological expansion model is assumed.


©2004 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.101302
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.101302
PACS: 98.80.Es, 14.20.Dh, 33.20.Ni, 98.62.Ra

* Electronic address: wimu@nat.vu.nl

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