Constants and Variables of Nature
Abstract
It is conventional to imagine that the various parameters which characterize our physical theories, such as the fine structure constant or Newton’s gravitational constant, are truly “constant”, in the sense that they do not change from place to place or time to time. Recent developments in both theory and observation have led us to re-examine this assumption, and to take seriously the possibility that our supposed constants are actually gradually changing. I will discuss why we might expect these parameters to vary, and what observation and experiment have to say about the issue.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 987320
- Resource Type:
- Multimedia
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; VARIABLE; CONSTANT; PHYSICAL THEORIES
Citation Formats
Carroll, Sean. Constants and Variables of Nature. United States: N. p., 2009.
Web.
Carroll, Sean. Constants and Variables of Nature. United States.
Carroll, Sean. Fri .
"Constants and Variables of Nature". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/987320.
@article{osti_987320,
title = {Constants and Variables of Nature},
author = {Carroll, Sean},
abstractNote = {It is conventional to imagine that the various parameters which characterize our physical theories, such as the fine structure constant or Newton’s gravitational constant, are truly “constant”, in the sense that they do not change from place to place or time to time. Recent developments in both theory and observation have led us to re-examine this assumption, and to take seriously the possibility that our supposed constants are actually gradually changing. I will discuss why we might expect these parameters to vary, and what observation and experiment have to say about the issue.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2009},
month = {4}
}