Beyond Bekenstein's Theory

KRAISELBURD, L.; M. MILLER BERTOLAMI; SISTERNA, P.; VUCETICH, H.

Lisboa

Conferencia; Simposio 1 de la Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting; 2010

European Astronomical Society

Abstract There are several very different motivations for studying the variationof fundamental constants. They may provide a connection between cosmology andparticle physics due to the coincidence of large dimensionless numbers arising fromthe combination of different physical constants. Bekenstein´s variable charge modelis very attractive because it is based on very general assumptions: covariance, gaugeinvariance, causality and time-reversal invariance of electromagnetism. The gener-ality of its assumptions guarantee the applicability of the scheme to other gaugeinteractions such as the strong forces. Besides, it introduces a useful simplifyingassumption; namely, that the gravitational sector is unaffected by the scalar fieldintroduced to vary the coupling constant. That is why it is interesting to explore firstthis simplified model, before a similar exploration of more general theories.