Dr. Kyle Beloy (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Centre for Theoretical Chemistry and Physics Bldg.44, NZ Institute for Advanced Study Massey University (Albany Campus) Private Bag 102904 North Shore MSC, Auckland New Zealand Phone +64 9 414 0800 ext. 9622 Fax +64 9 443 9779 Email: K.Beloy@massey.ac.nz

Research interests

Fundamental constants like the speed of light c, the Planck constant h or the gravitational constant G play defining roles in physics and chemistry. Modern theories attempting to unify all four fundamental forces of nature suggest that all fundamental constants may vary in space and time. The search for such small variations currently constitutes one of the most exciting areas of modern physics. This area of research is motivated by new theories unifying gravity with the other three fundamental interactions, as well as by a number of cosmological models. From atomic clock experiments we already know that the variation of the fine structure constant Δα/α is less than 10-16 per year, and the variation in the electron to proton mass ratio Δm/m (m=m_e/m_p) is similarly small with less than 10^-15 per year. Quasar and Big Bang nucleosynthesis data gave hints for non-zero variations which, however, have not been confirmed yet. For further progress in this area it is important to find enhanced effects in the variation of fundamental constants. We therefore want to find suitable atoms or molecules to perform high-precision relativistic quantum theoretical calculations, and stimulate new searches of the variation effects both in cosmic and laboratory molecular spectra.