Probing unification scenarios with atomic clocks

Abstract

We discuss the usage of measurements of the stability of nature's fundamental constants coming from comparisons between atomic clocks as a means to constrain coupled variations of these constants in a broad class of unification scenarios. After introducing the phenomenology of these models we provide updated constraints, based on a global analysis of the latest experimental results. We obtain null results for the proton-to-electron mass ratio $\dot{\mu }/\mu =(0.68\pm 5.79)\text{ti}mes10^{-16}\mathrm{yr}{}^{-1}$ and for the gyromagnetic factor ${\dot{g}}_p/g_p=(-0.72\pm 0.89)\times 10^{-16}\mathrm{yr}{}^{-1}$ (both of these being at the 95 % confidence level). These results are compatible with theoretical expectations on unification scenarios, but much freedom exists due to the presence of a degeneracy direction in the relevant parameter space.

Comments: 5 pages