Evidence for spatial variation of the ﬁne structure constant J. K. Webb1 , J. A. King1 , M. T. Murphy2 , V. V. Flambaum1 , R. F. Carswell3 , and M. B. Bainbridge1 1 School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 2 Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Mail H39, PO Box 218, Victoria 3122, Australia and 3 Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, England. (Dated: August 25, 2010) We previously reported observations of quasar spectra from the Keck telescope suggesting a smaller value of the ﬁne structure constant, α, at high redshift. A new sample of 153 measurements from the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), probing a diﬀerent direction in the universe, also depends on redshift, but in the opposite sense, that is, α appears on average to be larger in the past. The combined dataset is well represented by a spatial dipole, signiﬁcant at the 4.1σ level, in the directionarXiv:1008.3907v1 [astro-ph.CO] 23 Aug 2010 right ascension 17.3 ± 0.6 hours, declination −61 ± 9 degrees. A detailed analysis for systematics, using observations duplicated at both telescopes, reveals none which are likely to emulate this result. PACS numbers: 06.20.Jr, 95.30.Dr, 95.30.Sf, 98.62.Ra, 98.80.-k, 98.80.Es, 98.80.Jk Quasar spectroscopy as a test of fundamental more extensive sky coverage. The ESO midas pipeline physics.— The vast light-travel times to distant quasars was used for the ﬁrst data reduction step, including wave- allows us to probe physics at high redshift. The rela- length calibration, although enhancements were made to tive positions of wavenumbers, ωz , of atomic transitions derive a more robust and accurate wavelength solution detected at redshift z = λobs /λlab − 1, can be com- from an improved selection of thorium-argon calibration pared with laboratory values, ω0 , via the relationship lamp emission lines . Echelle spectral orders from sev- 2 2 2 ωz = ω0 + Q αz − α0 /α0 and the coeﬃcient Q mea- eral exposures of a given quasar were combined using sures the sensitivity of a given transition to a change in uves popler . A total of 60 quasar spectra from the α. The variation in both magnitude and sign of Q for dif- VLT have been used for the present work, yielding 153 ferent transitions is a signiﬁcant advantage of the Many absorption systems. Absorption systems were identiﬁed Multiplet method [1, 2], helping to combat potential sys- via a careful visual search of each spectrum, using rd- tematics. gen , scanning for commonly detected transitions at The ﬁrst application of this method, 30 measurements the same redshift, hence aligned in velocity coordinates. of ∆α/α = (αz − α0 ) /α0 , signalled a smaller α at high Several transition matches were required for acceptance redshift at the 3σ signiﬁcance level. By 2004 we had made and, given the high spectral resolution, chance matches 143 measurements of α covering a wide redshift range, were eliminated. using further data from the Keck telescope obtained by Absorption system modelling.— As in our previous 3 separate groups, supporting our earlier ﬁndings, that studies, vpfit was used to model the proﬁles in each ab- towards that general direction in the universe at least, α sorption system  with some enhancements, described may have been smaller at high redshift, at the 5σ level [3– in . A comprehensive list of the transitions used, their 5]. The constant factor at that point was (undesirably) laboratory wavelengths, oscillator strengths, and Q coef- the telescope/instrument. ﬁcients are compiled in [4, 8]. Subsequently, only 1 further independent statistical The following general procedures were adhered to: (i) study has been completed , but diﬃculties with the For each absorption system, physically related parame- analysis methods mean those results do not add to or ters (redshifts and b-parameters) are tied, in order to provide a check on our earlier results . A small num- minimise the required number of free parameters and ber of individual α measurements have been made, but derive the strongest possible constraints on line posi- provide no general conclusions since the systematic com- tions, and hence ∆α/α. (ii) Parameters were tied only ponent of the error on ∆α/α ∼ 10−5 . for species with similar ionisation potentials, to min- New data from the VLT.— We have now analysed imise possible introduction of random eﬀects on α, mim- a large dataset from a diﬀerent observatory, the VLT. icked by spatial (and hence velocity) segregation eﬀects; Full details and searches for systematic errors will be (iii) Line broadening is typically dominated by turbulent given elsewhere[8, 9]. Here we summarize the evidence rather than thermal motion. Both limiting-case models for spatial variation in α emerging from the combined were applied and ∆α/α determined for each. The ﬁnal Keck+VLT samples. Quasar spectra, obtained from the ∆α/α was derived from a likelihood-weighted average. ESO Science Archive, were selected, prioritising primar- Details and justiﬁcation are given in ; (iv) Where ap- ily by expected signal to noise but with some preference propriate (and where available), isotopic structures are given to higher redshift objects and to objects giving included in the ﬁtting procedure (for Mgi, Mgii, Aliii,
2Siii, and Feii); (v) Velocity structures were determined and hence, on average, observe diﬀerent directions on theinitially choosing the strongest unsaturated transitions sky. We are thus motivated to explore a simple spatialin each system. Normalised residuals across each tran- dependence using the combined dataset.sition ﬁtted were examined and the ﬁt progressively re- The Keck sample we use is as presented in  with aﬁned with the introduction of each additional transition minor modiﬁcation: 3 points were removed. 2 had beento the ﬁt; (vi) Transitions falling in spectral regions con- included erroneously (from a spectrum known to havetaminated by telluric features or atmospheric absorption calibration problems) and 1 further point was clipped,were discarded. Any data regions contaminated by cos- having a residual greater than 3σ against a modiﬁed LTSmic rays, faulty CCD pixels, or any other unidentiﬁed ﬁt to the Keck data.noise eﬀects, were also discarded; (vii) A few gravita- Initially the 3 datasets (i.e. Keck, VLT and combined)tional lenses were identiﬁed by being diﬃcult or impos- are ﬁtted using a simple possible dipole+monopolesible to model successfuly. The non-point source quasar model, represented here by ∆α/α = A cos Θ+m, where mimage and the resultant complex line-of-sight geometry is a constant allowing an oﬀset from the terrestrial value,can signiﬁcantly alter apparent relative line strengths. Θ is the angle on the sky between quasar sightline andThese systems were discarded; (viii) In all cases we de- best-ﬁt dipole position, and A is the dipole amplitude.rived the ﬁnal model without solving for ∆α/α. The To examine the probability of the observed dipoleintroduction of ∆α/α as an additional free parameter model arising by chance, we bootstrap the sample, re-was only done once the proﬁle velocity structure had peatedly randomising the association between ∆α/α andbeen ﬁnalised, eliminating any possible bias towards a quasar sightline, ﬁtting ∆α/α = A cos Θ + m at each re-‘preferred’ ∆α/α. One potential consequence of this ap- alisation. We then numerically determine the probabilityproach might conceivably be a small bias on ∆α/α to- of obtaining a value of χ2 less than or equal to the actualwards zero, should some ‘ﬁtting-away’ of ∆α/α occur, by value by comparing with the χ2 probability distributioncolumn density adjustments or velocity structure deci- from the bootstrap process.sions. The reverse is not true, i.e. it cannot bias towards Figure 1 illustrates the best-ﬁt dipole equatorial co-a non-zero ∆α/α. ordinates on an all-sky map, with approximate 1σ error vpfit  minimises χ2 simultaneously over all species. contours derived from the covariance matrix. Figure 2Whilst the strongest components may appear in all illustrates the ∆α/α binned data and the best-ﬁt dipolespecies, weaker components can sometimes fall below the model. Best-ﬁt parameters are given in the captions.detection threshold and hence are excluded, such that As a second trial model, allowing for a spatial gradienta component which appears in MgII, for example, does in α, we assign a distance to each ∆α/α measurementnot appear in FeII. There is no solution to this (known) of r(z) = ct(z) where c is the speed of light and t(z)problem but its eﬀect merely adds an additional random is the look-back time at redshift z. The model is thenscatter on ∆α/α for an ensemble of observations. ∆α/α = Br(z) cos Θ + m. Figure 3 illustrates ∆α/α Spatially dependent α.— An initial inspection of ∆α/α vs look-back time distance projected onto the dipolevs redshift for the new VLT dataset reveals a redshift axis, r cos Θ, using the best-ﬁt dipole parameters for thistrend, opposite in sign compared to the earlier Keck model. This model seems to represent the data reason-data. Splitting each sample at z = 1.8, our 2004 Keck ably well and the data show a strong correlation, signiﬁ-sample  gave ∆α/α z<1.8 = −0.54 ± 0.12 × 10−5 and cant at the 4.1σ level. ∆α/α z>1.8 = −0.74 ± 0.17 × 10−5 . The present 2010 Given the relatively low statistical signiﬁcance of theVLT sample, which will be discussed in detail in  gives monopole term m for both models above (see captions, ∆α/α z<1.8 = −0.06 ± 0.16 × 10−5 and ∆α/α z>1.8 = Figures 2 and 3), and because the theoretical interpre-+0.61 ± 0.20 × 10−5 . Errors here and throughout this tation of a monopole term is unclear, a third model waspaper are 1σ estimates. ﬁtted, ∆α/α = Br cos Θ, giving B = 1.10 ± 0.25 × 10−6 Errors on individual ∆α/α values for the VLT sample GLyr−1 with a signiﬁcance of 4.2σ and giving parame- 2 2 2 2are σtot = σstat +σsys , where σsys was derived empirically ters right ascension 17.4 ± 0.6 hours, declination −58 ± 6using a modiﬁcation of the Least Trimmed Squares (LTS) degrees.method, where only 85% of data, those points with the An alternative to empirically increasing the ∆α/α er-smallest squared residuals, are ﬁtted. σsys was assumed ror bars to incorporate a systematic component is to as-constant for all VLT absorbers and was found to be ≈ 2 2 sume σtot = σstat and to iteratively trim the data during0.88 × 10−5 , showing that the scatter in the VLT ∆α/α model ﬁtting. This provides a further stringent test ofis greater than expected on the basis of statistical-errors whether the apparent gradient in α is dominated by aalone. Errors on ∆α/α for the Keck sample are discussed subset of the data, perhaps more prone to some unknownin , although we derive a new estimate of σsys for the 2 2 systematic than the remainder. Adopting σtot = σstatKeck points using the LTS method. will clearly result in higher signiﬁcance levels. In Figure The Keck (Mauna Kea, Hawaii) and VLT (Paranal, 4 we plot the statistical signiﬁcance of the dipole in unitsChile) locations on Earth are separated by 45◦ in latitude of σ and ﬁnd that over 40% of the data must be discarded
3FIG. 1. All-sky plot showing the independent Keck (green)and VLT (blue) best-ﬁt dipoles, and the combined sample(red), in equatorial co-ordinates. Approximate 1σ conﬁdencecontours are from the covariance matrix. A bootstrap anal- FIG. 3. ∆α/α vs Br cos Θ for the model ∆α/α = Br cos Θ +ysis gives the chance-probability of getting the observed (or m showing the gradient in α along the best-ﬁt dipole. Thebetter) alignment between the independent Keck and VLT best-ﬁt direction is at right ascension 17.4±0.6 hours, declina-dipoles is only 4%. The cosmic microwave background dipole tion −62±6 degrees, for which B = (1.1±0.2)×10−6 GLyr−1and antipole are illustrated for comparison. and m = (−1.9 ± 0.8) × 10−6 . This dipole+monopole model is statistically preferred over a monopole-only model also at the 4.1σ level. A cosmology with parameters (H0 , ΩM , ΩΛ ) = (70.5, 0.2736, 0.726) was used . FIG. 4. As an alternative to increasing ∆α/α error bars, to account for the additional scatter in the data as described in 2 2FIG. 2. ∆α/α for the combined Keck and VLT data vs angle the text, we instead use σtot = σstat and iteratively clip theΘ from best-ﬁt dipole, ∆α/α = A cos Θ + m, A = (0.97 ± most deviant ∆α/α value, ﬁtting ∆α/α = A cos Θ + m. The0.21) × 10−5 and m = (−0.18 ± 0.08) × 10−5 . Dashed lines vertical dashed line illustrates where the dotted curve χ2 = 1, νillustrate ±1σ errors on the dipole ﬁt. The best-ﬁt dipole is at when ∼ 8% of the data has been trimmed. Almost 50% of theright ascension 17.3 ± 0.6 hours, declination −61 ± 9 degrees data must be discarded before the signiﬁcance drops below 4σand is statistically preferred over a monopole model at the showing that the dipole signal is generally present in entire4.1σ level. dataset.to push the result below 4σ, implying a remarkable in- ferent wavelength settings. This may apply to either orternal consistency within the data. both Keck and VLT spectra. Since spectrograph slit il- Empirical test for systematics.— One potential eﬀec- luminations are diﬀerent for quasar (point source) andtive relative distortion might be due to slight mechanical ThAr calibration lamp (uniform illumination), the sub-mis-alignments of the spectrograph slits for the 2 arms, sequent combination of individual exposures to form ared and blue, of the UVES spectrograph on the VLT. 1-dimensional spectrum may then contain relative veloc-However, this speciﬁc eﬀect appears to be substantially ity shifts between spectral segments coming from diﬀer-smaller than required to explain values of ∆α/α∼ 10−5 ent exposures. This eﬀect will exist in our data at someseen in the present work . level and it is clearly important to know the impact on A more subtle but related eﬀect may be slight oﬀ- an ensemble of measurements of α.centre placement of the quasar image in the spectrograph Fortunately, 6 quasars in our sample have both Keckslit, by diﬀerent amounts for diﬀerent exposures, at dif- and VLT spectra, allowing a direct and empirical check
4on the eﬀect above, and indeed any other systematics signiﬁcant amounts of extra scatter into the data abovewhich produce relative velocity shifts along the spectrum. what is already observed, implying that this is an over-To do this we selected small spectral segments, each a few estimate of a systematic eﬀect of this type. Additionally,˚ wide, ﬂanked by unabsorbed continuum ﬂux from theA the trend of δv(λobs )i against wavelength is diﬀerent inquasar, and ﬁtted Voigt proﬁles using vpfit, but adding magnitude and sign for each quasar pair, implying thatan additional free parameter allowing a velocity shift be- these eﬀects are likely to average out for an ensemble oftween the Keck and VLT segments, δv(λobs )i , where λobs observations. Thus, application of the eﬀect as describedis the observed wavelength and i refers to the ith quasar. above should be regarded as extreme in terms of impactAll available absorption lines in the 6 spectra were used, on estimating ∆α/α.including both Lyman-α forest lines and heavy element Conclusions.— Quasar spectra obtained using 2 sepa-lines but excluding telluric features. In this way we can rate observatories reveal a spatial dependence of the ﬁnemap any eﬀective relative distortions in the calibrations stucture constant at a signiﬁcance of 4.1σ, estimated con-between each pair of spectra. A total of 694 measure- servatively, taking into account both statistical and sys-ments were used from the 6 pairs of spectra over the tematic errors. Two independent datasets reveal a strik-observed wavelength range 3506 < λ < 8945˚. A ing internal consistency and the directions of the indepen- We formed a composite function δv(λobs ) after ﬁrst dently derived spatial dipoles agree well, with a chancenormalising δv(λobs )i = 0 for each i to remove any po- probability of 4%. The apparent symmetry in magnitudetential small constant velocity oﬀsets from each spectrum of the ∆α/α variation between northern and southern(expected from oﬀ-centering of the quasar in the spectro- hemisphere quasar data is also striking. A subset of thegraph slit), which cannot inﬂuence α. quasar spectra observed at both observatories permits a Finally we ﬁt the composite δvλobs with a linear direct test for systematics. None are found which arefunction f (δv) = aλobs + b where a = (−7 ± 14) × likely to emulate the apparent cosmological dipole in α −1 we detect. To explain our results in terms of systematics10−5 km s−1 ˚ , b = 0.38 ± 0.71 km s−1 . The ﬁnal f (δv) A will require at least 2 diﬀerent and ﬁnely tuned eﬀects.thus shows a weak (but statistically insigniﬁcant) velocity Future similar measurements targeting the apparent poledrift, and provides an empirical transformation between and anti-pole directions will maximise detection sensitiv-the Keck and VLT wavelength scales. For each quasar ity, and further observations duplicated on 2 indepen-absorption system, we modify the input laboratory wave- dent telescopes will better constrain systematics. Abovelengths used in the Voigt proﬁle ﬁtting procedure λlab to all, an independent technique is required to check theseλlab = λlab + ∆λlab where ∆λlab = λlab δv (λobs )/c, and results. Qualitatively, our results suggest a violation ofﬁnally use the λlab to re-compute ∆α/α for the entire the Einstein Equivalence Principle, and could infer a verysample. Since we do not know whether the Keck or the large or inﬁnite universe, within which our ‘local’ HubbleVLT observation causes the non-zero values of the param- volume represents a tiny fraction, with correspondinglyeters a, b above, we applied the transformation separately small variations in the physical constants.to both and examine the impact in each case. This work is supported by the Australian Research There was one complicating aspect of this eﬀect ex- Council. RFC is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for ancluded from the discussion above, arising from a 7th spec- Emeritus grant. We thank Steve Curran, Elliott Koch,tral pair. The δv(λobs )7 showed a more signiﬁcant non- Julian Berengut, John Barrow and Paul Davies for dis-zero slope than the other 6, suggesting a small but signif- cussions throughout this work.icant calibration problem with that particular spectrum.We therefore applied a slightly more complicated trans-formation to the data to allow for this, using a MonteCarlo simulation to estimate the potential impact on ourfull combined Keck and VLT sample of both the previ-  J. K. Webb et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 884 (Feb. 1999),ous eﬀect measured in 6 quasars plus the eﬀect derived arXiv:astro-ph/9803165.from the 7th quasar simultaneously, applied in appropri-  V. A. Dzuba, V. V. Flambaum, and J. K. Webb, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 888 (Feb. 1999),ate proportions. The full details of this analysis will be arXiv:physics/9802029.discussed separately in .  J. K. Webb et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 091301 (Aug. A systematic of the same magnitude as that from the 2001), arXiv:astro-ph/0012539.7th pair cannot be present in any large fraction of our  M. T. Murphy, J. K. Webb, and V. V. Flambaum,data, otherwise it would generate large numbers of no- Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 345, 609 (Oct. 2003), arXiv:astro-ph/0306483.ticeable outliers. If we apply f (δv) from the 6 quasar  M. T. Murphy, V. V. Flambaum, and J. K. Webb, inpairs, the signiﬁcance of the dipole is reduced to 3.1σ. Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants, Lec-Blindly including the eﬀect of the 7th pair under a Monte ture Notes in Physics, Berlin Springer Verlag, Vol. 648,Carlo method reduces the signiﬁcance to a most likely edited by S. G. Karshenboim & E. Peik (2004) pp. 131–value of 2.2σ. However, in this circumstance we add 150, arXiv:astro-ph/0310318.
5  H. Chand et al., Astron. Astrophys. 417, 853 (Apr. 2004), arXiv:astro-ph/0401094.  M. T. Murphy, J. K. Webb, and V. V. Flambaum, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 384, 1053 (Mar. 2008), arXiv:astro-ph/0612407.  J. A. King et al.(2010), in preparation; to be submitted to Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc.  F. E. Koch et al.(2010), in preparation; to be submitted to Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. M. T. Murphy et al., Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 378, 221 (Jun. 2007), arXiv:astro-ph/0703623. M. T. Murphy, “uves popler,” (2010), http:// astronomy.swin.edu.au/~mmurphy/UVES_popler. R. F. Carswell, “rdgen,” (2004), http://www.ast.cam. ac.uk/~rfc/rdgen.html. R. F. Carswell and J. K. Webb, “vpfit - Voigt proﬁle ﬁtting program. Version 9.5,” (2010), http://www.ast. cam.ac.uk/~rfc/vpfit.html. G. Hinshaw et al., Astrophys. J. Supp. 180, 225 (Feb. 2009), arXiv:0803.0732. P. Molaro et al., Astron. Astrophys. 481, 559 (Apr. 2008), arXiv:0712.3345.FIG. 5. Supplementary ﬁgure. All-sky illustration of the combined Keck and VLT ∆α/α measurements. Squares are VLTpoints. Circles are Keck points. Triangles are quasars observed at both Keck and VLT. Symbol size indicates deviation of∆α/α from the monopole value m in ∆α/α = A cos Θ + m (Figures 2 and 3). The grey shaded area represents the Galacticplane with the Galactic centre indicated as a bulge. The blue dashed line shows the equatorial region of the α-dipole. Moreand larger blue squares are seen south of the equatorial region and more and larger red circles are seen north of it.