Can a Changing alpha Explain the Supernovae Results?

Abstract

We show that the supernovae results, which imply that there is evidence for an accelerating universe, may be closely related to the recent discovery of redshift dependence in the fine-structure constant alpha. The link is a class of varying speed-of-light (VSL) theories that contain cosmological solutions that are similar to quintessence. During the radiation-dominated epoch, the cosmological constant Lambda is prevented from dominating the universe by the usual VSL mechanism. In the matter-dominated epoch, the varying-c effects switch off, allowing Lambda to eventually surface and lead to an accelerating universe. By the time this happens, the residual variations in c imply a changing alpha at a rate that is in agreement with observations.