Galaxy clusters, type Ia supernovae and the fine structure constant
- Departamento de Física, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, street Baraúnas, Campina Grande, PB, 58429-500 (Brazil)
- Departamento de Física Matemática, Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 66318, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-090 Brazil (Brazil)
- Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, street Aprígio Veloso, Campina Grande, PB, 58429-900 (Brazil)
- Observatório Nacional, Street José Cristino, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20921-400 (Brazil)
As is well known, measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect can be combined with observations of the X-ray surface brightness of galaxy clusters to estimate the angular diameter distance to these structures. In this paper, we show that this technique depends on the fine structure constant, α. Therefore, if α is a time-dependent quantity, e.g., α = α{sub 0}φ( z ), where φ is a function of redshift, we argue that current data do not provide the real angular diameter distance, D {sub A}( z ), to the cluster, but instead D {sub A}{sup data}( z ) = φ( z ){sup 2} D {sub A}( z ). We use this result to derive constraints on a possible variation of α for a class of dilaton runaway models considering a sample of 25 measurements of D {sub A}{sup data}( z ) in redshift range 0.023 < z < 0.784 and estimates of D {sub A}( z ) from current type Ia supernovae observations. We find no significant indication of variation of α with the present data.
- OSTI ID:
- 22679491
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 08; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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