Cosmology with relativistically varying physical constants

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have shown that the varying physical constant model is consistent with the recently published variational approach wherein Einstein equations are modified to include the variation of the speed of light c, gravitational constant G, and cosmological constant Λ using the Einstein–Hilbert action. The general constraint resulting from satisfying the local conservation laws and contracted Bianchi identities provides the freedom to choose the form of the variation of the constants as well as how their variations are related. When we choose ${\dot{G}}/G = 3\,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{\dot{c}} /c,\,c = {c_0}\,{\rm{exp}}\,[({a^\alpha} - 1)],\,G = {G_0}\,{\rm{exp}}\,[3({a^\alpha} - 1)]$, and ${\rm{\Lambda }} = {{\rm{\Lambda }}_0}\ \exp [ {( {{a^{ - \alpha }} - 1} )} ]$, where a is the scale factor and α = 1.8, we are able to show that the resulting model: (a) fits the supernova 1a observational data marginally better than the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model; (b) determines the first peak in the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies at a multipole value of $l = 217.3$; (c) calculates the age of the Universe as 14.1 Gyr; and (d) finds the BAO acoustic scale to be 145.2 Mpc. These numbers are within less than 3 per cent of the values derived using the ΛCDM model. Surprisingly, we find that the dark-energy density is negative in a Universe that has significant negative curvature and whose expansion is accelerating at a faster rate than that predicted by the ΛCDM model.