Gravitational fine-structure constant

The sensitivity of electronic configurations to gravitational fields offers an immediate explanation of the enormously different red shifts of light emitted by a quasar and by less massive objects, physically associated with the quasar. The furore [106] over the anomalous Fraunhofer lines of common metals in a quasar corona could also be defused by the conclusion that the electron configurations of elements within the quasar, and hence their spectroscopic properties, differ from their laboratory equivalents. The observed shifts are therefore not due to a fine-structure constant changing with time, but to the response of electronic energy levels to high pressure. 

The gravitational field that exists in the nebula causes a characteristic shift for each metal, which cannot be explained by assuming a constant red-shift for all metals. No other satisfactory explanation of the observed effect has been reported. Where others look at a time-dependent fine-structure constant or variable c or h to account for the modified spectra, we ascribe the observation to a simple response to space-time curvature. 

A gravitational analogue of the fine-structure constant is defined by... 

Ferrell, S.J. et al.. Investigation on the gravitational potential dependence of the fine-structure constant using atomic Dysprosium, Phys. Rev. A, 76, 062104, 2007 arXiv 0708.0569. 

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