The "Times" they are a changing:

http://physicsweb.org/articles/n...s/news/10/5/3/ 1


Paul Valletta | Homepage | 05.06.06 - 11:16 am | #

I had seen indication of this information elsewhere in passing references to Steinhardt and Turok.

I have been following those two for a while, but not recently, so thanks very much. Something else triggered in my mind when you said, "The "Times" they are a changing".

The fine-structure constant is of dimension 1 (i.e., it is simply a number) and very nearly equal to 1/137. It is the "coupling constant" or measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force that governs how electrically charged elementary particles (e.g., electron, muon) and light (photons) interact. Currently, the value of having the smallest uncertainty comes from the comparison of the theoretical expression ae(theor) and experimental value ae(expt) of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron ae.