Light speed variation from gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

The effect of quantum gravity can bring a tiny light speed variation which is detectable through energetic photons propagating from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) to an observer such as the space observatory. Through an analysis of the energetic photon data of the GRBs observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST), we reveal a surprising regularity of the observed time lags between photons of different energies with respect to the Lorentz violation factor due to the light speed energy dependence. Such regularity suggests a linear form correction of the light speed $v(E)=c(1-E/E_{\rm LV})$, where $E$ is the photon energy and $E_{\rm LV}=(3.60 \pm 0.26) \times 10^{17}~ \rm GeV$ is the Lorentz violation scale measured by the energetic photon data of GRBs. The results support an energy dependence of the light speed in cosmological space.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, final version for publication with typos correcte

Statistical significance of spectral lag transition in GRB 160625B

“…These limits also rule out results from [14][15][16], who followed the same procedure of [9] and claimed evidence for a linear correlation between the LIV induced time lag and energy.…”

“…Although many astrophysical sources such as AGNs [6,7], pulsars [8] etc. have been used to search for LIV-induced light speed variation, most of these searches have been done with Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)(See [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and references therein). Results from searches for LIV prior to 2006 or so can be found in the reviews in [3,4].…”

Relativistic compatibility of the interacting κ -Poincaré model and implications for the relative locality framework

“…The second equation is trivially invariant under translations and boosts, since these transformations are closed with respect to momenta, see Eqs. (12) and (14). So we are only left with showing the invariance of the worldline.…”

“…On the one hand the theoretical stance of such models is now based on quite firm grounds: indications that the Planck-scale structure of spacetime implies a deformation of the geometry of momentum space emerge in research on noncommutative geometry [4][5][6], loop quantum gravity [7,8] as well as 2 + 1 dimensional quantum gravity [9][10][11]. On the other hand, the prospects for testing Planck-scale deviations from special relativity are now more concrete than ever: analyses concerning the time of flight of very high energy particles of astrophysical origin have reached the required Planck-scale sensitivity, and found regularities [12][13][14][15][16][17] that are compatible with the sort of energy dependence of the velocity of massless particles that would be expected in typical DSR scenarios (while the extremely strong constraints on deviations from standard physics in threshold reactions disfavour the Lorentz breaking (LIV) scenario [18,19]).…”

Limits on the Lorentz Invariance Violation from UHECR Astrophysics

“…Astroparticle physics has been proposed as an appropriate test environment for possible Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) given the large energy of the particles, the large propagation distances, the accumulation of small interaction effects and recently the precision of the measurements (Liberati & Maccione (2009) ;Stecker & Scully (2005; Amelino-Camelia et al (1998); Jacobson et al (2003); Galaverni & Sigl (2008a,b); Xu & Ma (2016); Chang et al (2016); Ellis & Mavromatos (2013); The MAGIC Collaboration (2008); Ellis et al (2006Ellis et al ( , 2008; Fairbairn et al (2014); Biteau & Williams (2015); Tavecchio & Bonnoli (2016); Rubtsov et al (2017)). …”