Fine-Structure Constant II

Conflicting with the previously mentioned study on the topic, a new study performed at UC Berkeley has confirmed that the fine-structure constant alpha has remained constant over the past 7 billion years. This result was based on data provided by DEEP2, an extensive redshift survey at Keck investigating 40,000 galaxies. The research team measured the OIII emission lines of 300 galaxies at redshifts between 0.4 and 0.7 (corresponding to 4-7 billion years ago), and found that the value of alpha had not changed in the past 7 billion years. Here is the audio version of the interview with Jeffrey Newman from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.