Time and Space Variation of Fundamental Constants Motivation and Laboratory Search.pdf

TIME AND SPACE VARIATION OF FUNDAMENTAL 3 CONSTANTS: MOTIVATION AND LABORATORY SEARCH 0 0 2 Savely G. Karshenboim n D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, 198005 St. Petersburg, Russia u Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany J E-mail: sek@mpq.mpg.de 5 2 Fundamental physical constants play important role in modern physics. Studies of their variation can open an interface to new physics. An overview of different approaches to ] a search for such variations is presented as well as possible reasons for the variations. h Special attention is paid to laboratory searches. p - m 1 Introduction o t a Any interactions of particles and compound objects such as atoms and molecules . s are described by some Lagrangian (Hamiltonian) and constancy of parameters of c the basic Lagrangian is a cornerstone of modern physics. Electric charge, mass and i s magnetic moment of the particle are parameters of the Lagrangian. However, there y are a few simple reasons why we have to expect the nature to be not so simple. h p • A theory described by a Lagrangian suggests some properties of the space- [ time. It seems that introducing gravitation we arrive to some inconsistency 1 of a classical description of the space-time continuum and that means that v the picture must be more compli