Fundamental Cosmology from Precision Spectroscopy: I. Varying Couplings
  The observational evidence for the acceleration of the universe demonstrates
that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete, if
not incorrect, and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered.
Forthcoming high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs will play a crucial role
in this quest for new physics, by enabling a new generation of precision
consistency tests. Here we focus on astrophysical tests of the stability of
nature's fundamental couplings, and by using Principal Component Analysis
techniques further calibrated by existing VLT data we discuss how the
improvements that can be expected with ESPRESSO and ELT-HIRES will impact on
fundamental cosmology. In particular we show that a 20 to 30 night program on
ELT-HIRES will allow it to play a leading role in fundamental cosmology.
