Ordinarily, one of the best ways to win an argument is to appeal to the immutable laws of physics. Something is because that's the way it has to be, according to the laws of the universe.
But what if these laws aren't really laws at all, but simply descriptions of a local time and place? A Swineburne University of Technology astrophysicist, Michael Murphy, has been one proponent of this controversial view, arguing that it is possible – and that his data indeed suggests – that laws actually work differently elsewhere and elsewhen in the universe.
Murphy writes specifically about something called the fine-structure constant, a value physicists use in describing the strength of electromagnetic interactions. Here on Earth today this does not vary, and – as with most constants – most scientists (but not all) have believed it to be a constant everywhere in the universe.
But over the last decade, Murphy and colleagues have published observations using the Keck telescope in Hawaii that seem to show a very slight variance in this value in very distant galaxies. At ten billion light years away, observing these locations is also observing a point in the distant past – but either way, the laws seem to be different, he argues.
Not very different, mind you. The observed difference would be only about five parts in a million-- but if genuine, enough to send ripples through our understanding of the way the universe works.
His work has been controversial. Several years ago, another group of scientists published results that contradicted his conclusions, saying that in fact the constant stayed constant even over great distances and time periods.
However, now Murphy and his colleagues say they've demonstrated that the contradictory analysis was faulty, and in fact did not undermine their conclusion at all. Their paper is being published as a Comment in Physical
Review Letters.
If Murphy and his colleagues are right, it doesn't throw the universe into chaos, of course. Laws remain laws on a local level. Speed limits might vary from country to country, but a driver would be ill-advised to try autobahn speeds on a California highway.
The Australian scientist says much work remains to be done to prove his contention, and that of his colleagues, as well as understanding its implications:
Laws of Nature may be flawed after all [Swineburne press release]
(Image: The Keck Observatory, on Hawaii's Mauna Kea summit. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory)
