corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 92 » Issue 4
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 041102 (2004) [4 pages]

Chemical Evolution of Mg Isotopes versus the Time Variation of the Fine Structure Constant

Download: PDF (94 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

T. Ashenfelter and Grant J. Mathews
Department of Physics, Center for Astrophysics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA

Keith A. Olive
William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

Received 8 September 2003; published 30 January 2004

We show that the synthesis of 25,26Mg at the base of the convective envelope in low-metallicity asymptotic giant branch stars can produce the isotopic ratios needed to explain the low-z subset (with z<1.8) of the many-multiplet data from quasar absorption systems without invoking a time variation of the fine structure constant. This is supported by observations of high abundances of the neutron-rich Mg isotopes in metal-poor globular-cluster stars. We conclude that the quasar absorption spectra may be providing interesting information on the nucleosynthetic history of such systems.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.041102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.041102
PACS:
98.62.Bj, 06.20.Jr, 97.10.Cv, 98.80.Es
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >