Improved limits on Lorentz invariance violation from astrophysical gamma-ray sources

Abstract

Lorentz invariance (LI) has a central role in science and its violation (LIV) at some high-energy scale has been related to possible solutions for several of the most intriguing puzzles in nature such as dark matter, dark energy, cosmic rays generation in extreme astrophysical objects and quantum gravity. We report on a search for LIV signal based on the propagation of gamma rays from astrophysical sources to Earth. An innovative data analysis is presented which allowed us to extract unprecedented information from the most updated data set composed of 111 energy spectra of 38 different sources measured by current gamma-ray observatories. No LIV signal was found, and we show that the data are best described by LI assumption. We derived limits for the LIV energy scale at least 3 times better than the ones currently available in the literature for subluminal signatures of LIV in high-energy gamma rays.

New stringent LIV limits from astrophysical gamma-ray sources

“…These effects could change astroparticle physics data in a detectable way. This work discusses the results obtained by Lang et al [6] by searching subluminal LIV signals in the energy spectra of TeV gamma-ray sources. It is also shown preliminary results of the possibility of testing superluminal signal.…”

“…LIV ) n . The subluminal case was discussed by Lang et al [6]. Figure 1 shows the mean free path and the energy threshold of the superluminal case.…”

“…The subluminal case was analyzed in detail in Lang et al [6], and it is reviewed here. The analysis method was done in two steps (a) selection of the relevant measured spectra and (b) selection of the bins in each measured energy spectrum to be considered.…”

“…New stringent LIV limits from astrophysical gamma-ray sources Vitor de Souza [6], [11], [14], [15], and [3].…”

Velocity-dependent deformations of the energy spectrum of a quantum cavity from Lorentz symmetry violations

“…Because astrophysical signals travel large distances to reach us, this frequency dependent time delay is in principle detectable even if velocity differences are very small. This idea has been used to analyze high-frequency electromagnetic radiation from gamma ray bursts and hence place limits on non-Lorentz invariant dispersion relations [51][52][53][54][55][56].…”