Bound on the Photon Charge from the Phase Coherence of Extragalactic Radiation

Journal Article · Fri Jun 29 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.98.261801· OSTI ID:20953363

Altschul, Brett ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405 (United States)

If the photon possessed a nonzero charge, then electromagnetic waves traveling along different paths would acquire Aharonov-Bohm phase differences. The fact that such an effect has not hindered interferometric astronomy places a bound on the photon charge estimated to be at the 10{sup -32}e level if all photons have the same charge and 10{sup -46}e if different photons can carry different charges.

• OSTI ID: 20953363
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 26; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.261801; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AHARONOV-BOHM EFFECT
ASTRONOMY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
PHOTONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS