Abstract
The Oklo phenomenon, natural fission reactors which had taken place in Gabon about 2 billion years ago, provides one of the most stringent constraints on the possible time-variability of the fine-structure constant α. We first review briefly what it is and how reliable it is in constraining α. We then compare the result with a more recent result on the nonzero change of α obtained from the observation of the QSO absorption lines. We suggest a possible way to make these results consistent with each other in terms of the behavior of a scalar field which is expected to be responsible for the acceleration of the universe.
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Fujii, Y. (2004). Oklo Constraint on the Time-Variabilityof the Fine-Structure Constant. In: Karshenboim, S.G., Peik, E. (eds) Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 648. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-40991-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-40991-5_11
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