Robust Limits on Lorentz Violation from Gamma-Ray Bursts

By John Ellis, N. Mavromatos, D. Nanopoulos, Alexander S. Sakharov, E. Sarkisyan. 2005

194 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We constrain the possibility of a non-trivial refractive index in free space corresponding to an energy-dependent velocity of light: c ( E ) ≃ c 0 (1 − E / M ), where M is a mass scale that might represent effect of quantum-gravitational space-time foam, using the arrival times of sharp features observed in the intensities of radiation with different energies from a large sample of gamma-ray bursters (GRBs) with known redshifts. We use wavelet techniques to identify genuine features, which we confirm in simulations with artificial added noise. Using the weighted averages of the time-lags calculated using correlated features in all the GRB light curves, we find a systematic tendency for more energetic photons to arrive earlier. However, there is a very strong correlation between the parameters characterizing an intrinsic time-lag at the source and a distance-dependent propagation effect. Moreover, the significance of the earlier arrival times is less evident for a subsample of more robust spectral structures. Allowing for intrinsic stochastic time-lags in these features, we establish a statistically robust lower limit: M > 0.9 × 10 16 GeV on the scale of violation of Lorentz invariance.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/45f40e27facae8257be318cf41f6e19dc9aaf89d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

Citations in the corpus

Astrophysical Tests of Lorentz and CPT Violation with Photons (2008, methodology): “Others seek a frequencydependent velocity arising from vacuum dispersion, using GRB, pulsars, and blazars (Amelino-Camelia et al. 1998; Kostelecký & Mewes 2002; Boggs et al. 2004; Mart́ınez & Piran 2006; Ellis et al. 2006; Lamon et al. 2008; Albert et al. 2008).”
Lorentz symmetry breaking as a quantum field theory regulator (2009, background): “It then becomes an empirical question as to whether or not the theory is ultimately compatible (either for finite cutoff, or in the limit as the cutoff is sent to infinity) with the observed bounds on Lorentz symmetry violations [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17].”
Field theory at a Lifshitz point (2009, background): “In [26, 27, 28], the dispersion relation of the photon is proposed to be modified by the effect of quantum gravity.”
Tests of Lorentz invariance: a 2013 update (2013, methodology): “So far, the most robust constraints on ξ (3), derived from time-of-flight differences, have been cast adopting a statistical analysis applied to the arrival times of sharp features in the intensity at different energies from a large sample of GRBs with known redshifts [154, 155], leading to limits ξ”