VLT/UVES shows no cosmological variability of α

The cosmological variability of α is probed from individual observations of pairs of fe II lines. This procedure allows a better control of the systematics and avoids the influence of the spectral shifts due to ionisation inhomogeneities in the absorbers and/or non-zero offsets between different exposures. Applied to the fe II lines of the metal absorption systems at z_abs=1.839 in q1101-264 and at z_abs=1.15 in he0515-4414 observed by means of UVES at the eso-VLT, it provides δα/α = (0.4±1.5_stat)×10^-6. The result is shifted with respect to the KECK/hires mean δα/α = (-5.7±1.1_stat)×10^-6 (murphy et al. 2004) at a high confidence level (95%). Full details of this work are given in levshakov et al. (2005).