1212.6815 (Qing Gao et al.)

Constraints on slow-roll thawing models from fundamental constants    [PDF]

Qing Gao, Yungui Gong

We consider a dark energy model with a relation between the equation of state parameter w and the energy density parameter \Omega_\phi derived for general thawing models. Assuming the variation of the fine structure constant is caused by dark energy, we use the observational data of the variation of the fine structure constant to constrain the current value of w_0 and \Omega_{\phi 0} for the dark energy model. At the 1\sigma level, the observational data excluded some areas around w_0=-1, which explains the positive detection of the variation of the fine structure constant at the 1\sigma level, but \Lambda CDM model is consistent with the data at 2\sigma level.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.6815