Nuclear Quadrupole Splittings in Rotational Spectra for the Possible Detection of Fine Structure Constant Variations: The Diatomic Gold Halides and Gold Hydride as Case Studies

The dependence of nuclear quadrupole coupling constants CNQC(alpha) on the fine-structure constant alpha for various diatomic gold molecules AuX (X = H, F, Cl, Br, and I) at the density functional level of theory is investigated. While the electric field gradient at gold is very sensitive to the density functional applied, the derivative with respect to alpha is less sensitive. From this, we can estimate the upper limit for the alpha variation in time, dCNQC/dt, for the 197Au nuclear quadrupole coupling constant, which is on the order of 10-9 Hz/year. This is currently beyond the limit of high -precision spectroscopy. I demonstrate that alpha dCNQCd alpha can be estimated from relativistic effects in CNQC, which will be useful in further investigations.

Automated summary

This study investigates the dependence of nuclear quadrupole coupling constants CNQC(alpha) on the fine-structure constant alpha for various diatomic gold molecules AuX (X = H, F, Cl, Br, and I) at the density functional level of theory. The results show that the electric field gradient at gold is sensitive to the density functional applied, but the derivative with respect to alpha is less sensitive. The study also estimates the upper limit for the alpha variation in time, dCNQC/dt, at 10-9 Hz/year, which exceeds the limit of high-precision spectroscopy.