The value of those wavelengths, in turn, is directly related to the value of the fine structure constant.
12.
For example, no candidate theory is able to calculate the fine structure constant or the mass of the electron.
13.
This is actually good news to physicists, because proposed theories can accommodate changes in the fine structure constant over time.
14.
Arthur Eddington argued that the fine structure constant was a unit fraction, first 1 / 136 then 1 / 137.
15.
The most precise and specific tests of QED consist of measurements of the electromagnetic fine structure constant, ?, in various physical systems.
16.
In the last analysis, they point out, all physical measurements boil down to a few dimensionless constants like the fine structure constant, alpha.
17.
Differences in the fine structure constant could also have affected element-building nuclear reactions in stars, which are extremely sensitive to such physical constants.
18.
In particular, for electromagnetism we can write the fine structure constant as an effective momentum-transfer-dependent quantity; to first order in the corrections, we have
19.
This contention has been falsified, given that current estimates of the fine structure constant are ( to 6 significant digits ) 1 / 137.036.
20.
It turns out that the fine structure constant is not really a constant at all owing to the zero-point energy fluctuations of the electron-positron field.
