Cosmological evolution of Alpha driven by a general coupling with Quintessence
Abstract
A general model for the cosmological evolution of the fine structure constant α driven by a typical Quintessence scenario is presented. We consider a coupling between the Quintessence scalar φ and the electromagnetic kinetic term F2, given by a general function BF(φ). We study the dependence of the cosmological α(t) upon the functional form of BF and discuss the constraints imposed by the data. We find that different cosmological histories for α(t) are possible within the avaliable constraints. We also find that Quasar absorption spectra evidence for a time variation of alpha, if confirmed, is not incompatible with Oklo and meteorites limits.
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