Observed spectra of quasars are affected by the variance of the fine-structure constant (α = e~2 /4πε_0hc). We propose a new method of using QSO spectra to investigate the possible temporal or spatial dependence of the fine-structure constant. Making use of the technique to reanalyze the optical spectra of the fine-structure transitions in [Ne III], [Ne V], [O III], [O I] and [S II] multiplets from 14 Seyfert 1.5 galaxies in the low-z range 0.035 〈 z 〈 0.281, we obtain a conservative value of α~2(t)/α~2(0) = 0.9999099 ± 0.0000553. This result represents a factor of ～ 33.4 improvements on the constraint on α~2(t)/α~2(0) compared with the result using the same data published in the literature.
展开▼
