skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from Fermi -Large Area Telescope observations of gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

For this research, we analyze the MeV/GeV emission from four bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope to produce robust, stringent constraints on a dependence of the speed of light in vacuo on the photon energy (vacuum dispersion), a form of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) allowed by some quantum gravity (QG) theories. First, we use three different and complementary techniques to constrain the total degree of dispersion observed in the data. Additionally, using a maximally conservative set of assumptions on possible source-intrinsic, spectral-evolution effects, we constrain any vacuum dispersion solely attributed to LIV. We then derive limits on the QG energy scale (the energy scale where LIV-inducing QG effects become strong, EQG) and the coefficients of the Standard Model Extension. For the subluminal case (where high-energy photons propagate more slowly than lower-energy photons) and without taking into account any source-intrinsic dispersion, our most stringent limits (at 95% C.L.) are obtained from GRB 090510 and are EQG,1 > 7.6 times the Planck energy (EPl) and EQG,2 > 1.3 × 1011 GeV for linear and quadratic leading-order LIV-induced vacuum dispersion, respectively. In conclusion, these limits improve the latest constraints by Fermi and H.E.S.S. by a factor of ~2more » . Our results disfavor any class of models requiring EQG,1 ≲ EPl .« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5]
  1. Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, Universite Montpellier 2, CNRS/IN2P3, CC 72, Place Eugene Bataillon (France)
  2. Laboratoire de Physique Nucleaire et de Hautes Energies, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Universite Denis Diderot Paris 7, CNRS/IN2P3 (France)
  3. The Open University of Israel (Israel). Department of Natural Sciences
  4. Astrophysics Science Division, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Department of Physics and Astronomy
  5. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste (Italy); Universita di Trieste (Italy). Dipartimento di Fisica
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
Contributing Org.:
Fermi-LAT Collaboration
OSTI Identifier:
1356591
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1102800
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 87; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1550-7998
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

Citation Formats

Vasileiou, V., Jacholkowska, A., Piron, F., Bolmont, J., Couturier, C., Granot, J., Stecker, F. W., Cohen-Tanugi, J., and Longo, F. Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from Fermi -Large Area Telescope observations of gamma-ray bursts. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.87.122001.
Vasileiou, V., Jacholkowska, A., Piron, F., Bolmont, J., Couturier, C., Granot, J., Stecker, F. W., Cohen-Tanugi, J., & Longo, F. Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from Fermi -Large Area Telescope observations of gamma-ray bursts. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.122001
Vasileiou, V., Jacholkowska, A., Piron, F., Bolmont, J., Couturier, C., Granot, J., Stecker, F. W., Cohen-Tanugi, J., and Longo, F. 2013. "Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from Fermi -Large Area Telescope observations of gamma-ray bursts". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.122001. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1356591.
@article{osti_1356591,
title = {Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from Fermi -Large Area Telescope observations of gamma-ray bursts},
author = {Vasileiou, V. and Jacholkowska, A. and Piron, F. and Bolmont, J. and Couturier, C. and Granot, J. and Stecker, F. W. and Cohen-Tanugi, J. and Longo, F.},
abstractNote = {For this research, we analyze the MeV/GeV emission from four bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Fermi Large Area Telescope to produce robust, stringent constraints on a dependence of the speed of light in vacuo on the photon energy (vacuum dispersion), a form of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) allowed by some quantum gravity (QG) theories. First, we use three different and complementary techniques to constrain the total degree of dispersion observed in the data. Additionally, using a maximally conservative set of assumptions on possible source-intrinsic, spectral-evolution effects, we constrain any vacuum dispersion solely attributed to LIV. We then derive limits on the QG energy scale (the energy scale where LIV-inducing QG effects become strong, EQG) and the coefficients of the Standard Model Extension. For the subluminal case (where high-energy photons propagate more slowly than lower-energy photons) and without taking into account any source-intrinsic dispersion, our most stringent limits (at 95% C.L.) are obtained from GRB 090510 and are EQG,1 > 7.6 times the Planck energy (EPl) and EQG,2 > 1.3 × 1011 GeV for linear and quadratic leading-order LIV-induced vacuum dispersion, respectively. In conclusion, these limits improve the latest constraints by Fermi and H.E.S.S. by a factor of ~2 . Our results disfavor any class of models requiring EQG,1 ≲ EPl .},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.87.122001},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1356591}, journal = {Physical Review. D, Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology},
issn = {1550-7998},
number = 12,
volume = 87,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Tue Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 144 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry in string theory
journal, January 1989


Entanglement Entropy of Black Holes
journal, October 2011


Loop Quantum Gravity
journal, July 2008


Modern Tests of Lorentz Invariance
journal, September 2005


Lorentz violation at high energy: Concepts, phenomena, and astrophysical constraints
journal, January 2006


High-energy tests of Lorentz invariance
journal, April 1999


New Limits on Planck Scale Lorentz Violation in QED
journal, July 2004


Searching for new physics with ultrahigh energy cosmic rays
journal, August 2009


A new limit on Planck scale Lorentz violation from γ-ray burst polarization
journal, September 2011


Tests of quantum gravity from observations of γ-ray bursts
journal, June 1998


CPT violation and the standard model
journal, June 1997


Electrodynamics with Lorentz-violating operators of arbitrary dimension
journal, July 2009


CPT , strings, and meson factories
journal, April 1995


New tests of Lorentz invariance following from observations of the highest energy cosmic γ-rays
journal, October 2001


Study of Lorentz violation in INTEGRAL gamma-ray bursts
journal, March 2008


Study of Time Lags in HETE‐2 Gamma‐Ray Bursts with Redshift: Search for Astrophysical Effects and a Quantum Gravity Signature
journal, March 2008


Robust limits on Lorentz violation from gamma-ray bursts
journal, July 2006


GRB 051221A and tests of Lorentz symmetry
journal, May 2006


THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION
journal, May 2009


Fermi Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from GRB 080916C
journal, February 2009


A limit on the variation of the speed of light arising from quantum gravity effects
journal, October 2009


Lorentz violation from cosmological objects with very high energy photon emissions
journal, June 2010


Bounds on Spectral Dispersion from Fermi-Detected Gamma Ray Bursts
journal, June 2012


Evidence for the discrete asymptotically-free BFKL Pomeron from HERA data
journal, September 2008


A new approach to study energy-dependent arrival delays on photons from astrophysical sources
journal, April 2009


Limits on an Energy Dependence of the Speed of Light from a Flare of the Active Galaxy PKS 2155-304
journal, October 2008


Sensitive Polarimetric Search for Relativity Violations in Gamma-Ray Bursts
journal, October 2006


Strict Limit on C P T Violation from Polarization of γ -Ray Bursts
journal, December 2012


Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation using integral/IBIS observations of GRB041219A
journal, June 2011


Constraints on Relativity Violations from Gamma-Ray Bursts
journal, May 2013


Derivation of a vacuum refractive index in a stringy space–time foam model
journal, July 2008


An Algorithm for Detecting Quantum Gravity Photon Dispersion in Gamma‐Ray Bursts: DisCan
journal, February 2008


Prospects for constraining quantum gravity dispersion with near term observations
journal, October 2009


Ultraviolet Modifications of Dispersion Relations in Effective Field Theory
journal, May 2003


Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model
journal, October 1998


Lorentz-violation-induced arrival delays of cosmological particles
journal, January 2008


SEVEN-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE ( WMAP ) OBSERVATIONS: COSMOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
journal, January 2011


A 3% SOLUTION: DETERMINATION OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT WITH THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3
journal, March 2011


THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON ORBIT: EVENT CLASSIFICATION, INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS, AND CALIBRATION
journal, October 2012


The redshift and afterglow of the extremely energetic gamma-ray burst GRB 080916C
journal, February 2009


VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of the GRB 090926A afterglow
journal, November 2010


Attributes of Pulses in Long Bright Gamma-Ray Bursts
journal, March 1996


Detection of a Spectral Break in the Extra hard Component of grb 090926a
journal, February 2011


Probes of Lorentz violation in neutrino propagation
journal, August 2008


BATSE observations of gamma-ray burst spectra. I - Spectral diversity
journal, August 1993


Comparison of QG-induced dispersion with standard physics effects
journal, May 2004


FERMI OBSERVATIONS OF GRB 090902B: A DISTINCT SPECTRAL COMPONENT IN THE PROMPT AND DELAYED EMISSION
journal, November 2009


Opacity Buildup in Impulsive Relativistic Sources
journal, April 2008


On the Variety of the Spectral and Temporal Behavior of Long Gamma‐Ray Burst Pulses
journal, February 2002


A unified constraint on the Lorentz invariance violation from both short and long GRBs
journal, August 2012


Data tables for Lorentz and C P T violation
journal, March 2011


Black Hole Entropy from Loop Quantum Gravity
journal, October 1996


Gravitons and loops
journal, September 1991


Ultrahigh-Energy Photons as Probes of Lorentz Symmetry Violations in Stringy Space-Time Foam Models
journal, July 2010


Comments on ultra-high-energy photons and D-foam models
journal, October 2010


On the sensitivity of the HAWC observatory to gamma-ray bursts
journal, May 2012


Tests of quantum gravity from observations of γ-ray bursts
journal, October 1998


Loop Quantum Gravity
conference, January 2006


Loop quantum gravity
journal, December 2014


Loop Quantum Gravity
conference, January 2013


Loop quantum gravity
journal, November 2003


Data Tables for Lorentz and cpt Violation
conference, January 2012


Study of Lorentz violation in INTEGRAL Gamma-Ray Bursts
text, January 2007


Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
text, January 2008


Probes of Lorentz Violation in Neutrino Propagation
text, January 2008


Comments on Ultra-High-Energy Photons and D-Foam models
text, January 2010


VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of the GRB 090926A afterglow
text, January 2010


New limits on Planck scale Lorentz violation in QED
text, January 2003


GRB 051221A and Tests of Lorentz Symmetry
text, January 2006


Works referencing / citing this record:

The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and design
journal, August 2019


A review of the generalized uncertainty principle
journal, October 2015


Photon splitting constraint on Lorentz invariance violation from Crab Nebula spectrum
journal, April 2019


Photon emission and decay from generic Lorentz invariance violation
journal, June 2017


New constraints on Lorentz invariance violation with polarized gamma-ray bursts
journal, March 2019


Dispersive light propagation at cosmological distances: Matter effects
journal, September 2013


ELKO fermions as dark matter candidates
journal, October 2015


Viability of quantum-gravity induced ultraviolet completions for matter
journal, October 2017


Lorentz violations in multifractal spacetimes
journal, May 2017


Asymptotically Weyl-invariant gravity
journal, November 2019


Renormalizing spacetime
journal, December 2018


Spacetime and Deformations of Special Relativistic Kinematics
journal, November 2019


Limits on the Lorentz Invariance Violation from UHECR Astrophysics
journal, January 2018


Renormalizing Spacetime
text, January 2018


ELKO fermions as dark matter candidates
text, January 2014


Renormalizing Spacetime
text, January 2018


The Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection (GRAND): Science and Design
text, January 2018


Improved limits on Lorentz invariance violation from astrophysical gamma-ray sources
text, January 2018


Spacetime and deformations of special relativistic kinematics
text, January 2019