The mass ratio between electrons and protons might not be constant....

'Mu' appears, at least for the moment, to be variable over time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/

edit- by the way it is related to this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077354/



E_E

So are they talking rest mass here? I ask because the masses of change on their own at speed and when bonded by the strong and electrostatic forces.

[/nerd]

[Choobus]

of course it's the rest mass.

here's the abstract from the PRL:

Based on highly accurate laboratory measurements of Lyman bands of H2 and an updated representation
of the structure of the ground X 1

g and excited B1

u and C1u states, a new set of sensitivity
coefficients Ki is derived for all lines in the H2 spectrum, representing the dependence of their transition
wavelengths on a possible variation of the proton-electron mass ratio
 mp=me. Included are local
perturbation effects between B and C levels and adiabatic corrections. The new wavelengths and Ki
factors are used to compare with a recent set of highly accurate H2 spectral lines observed in the Q 0347-
383 and Q 0405-443 quasars, yielding a fractional change in the mass ratio of 
=
 2:4  0:6  105 for a weighted fit and 
=
 2:0  0:6  105 for an unweighted fit. This result indicates, at a
3:5 confidence level, that
could have decreased in the past 12 Gyr.