Dirac's large number hypothesis: A journey from concept to implication

Abstract

Large dimensionless numbers, arising out of ratios of various physical constants, intrigued many scientists, especially Dirac. Relying on the coincidence of large numbers, Dirac arrived at the revolutionary hypothesis that the gravitational constant [Formula: see text] should vary inversely at the cosmic time [Formula: see text]. This hypothesis of Dirac, known as the Large Number Hypothesis (LNH), sparked off many speculations, arguments and new ideas in terms of applications. Works done by several authors with LNH as their basic platform are extensively reviewed in this work. Relationship between some of those works are pointed out here elaborately. Possibility of time variations of physical constants other than [Formula: see text] as well as large numbers in various realm of physical and biological sciences are also discussed.