A limit on the variation of the speed of light arising from quantum gravity effects

Journal Article · Wed Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Nature (London)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08574· OSTI ID:1357435

Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Asano, K.; Atwood, W. B.; Axelsson, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Baring, M. G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; Bhat, P. N.; Bissaldi, E.; Bloom, E. D.; Bonamente, E.; Bonnell, J.; Borgland, A. W. ; Bouvier, A.; Bregeon, J.; Brez, A.; Briggs, M. S.; Brigida, M.; Bruel, P.; Burgess, J. M.; Burnett, T. H.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Casandjian, J. M.; Cecchi, C.; Çelik, Ö.; Chaplin, V.; Charles, E.; Cheung, C. C.; Chiang, J.; Ciprini, S.; Claus, R.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.; Cominsky, L. R.; Connaughton, V.; Conrad, J.; Cutini, S.; Dermer, C. D.; de Angelis, A.; de Palma, F.; Digel, S. W.; Dingus, B. L.; do Couto e Silva, E.; Drell, P. S.; Dubois, R.; Dumora, D.; Farnier, C.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Finke, J.; Fishman, G.; Focke, W. B.; Foschini, L.; Fukazawa, Y.; Funk, S.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Gehrels, N.; Germani, S.; Gibby, L.; Giebels, B.; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Granot, J.; Greiner, J.; Grenier, I. A.; Grondin, M. -H.; Grove, J. E.; Grupe, D.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Hanabata, Y.; Harding, A. K.; Hayashida, M.; Hays, E.; Hoversten, E. A.; Hughes, R. E.; Jóhannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Johnson, R. P.; Johnson, W. N.; Kamae, T.; Katagiri, H.; Kataoka, J.; Kawai, N.; Kerr, M.; Kippen, R. M.; Knödlseder, J.; Kocevski, D.; Kouveliotou, C.; Kuehn, F.; Kuss, M.; Lande, J.; Latronico, L.; Lemoine-Goumard, M.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lott, B.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Madejski, G. M.; Makeev, A.; Mazziotta, M. N.; McBreen, S.; McEnery, J. E.; McGlynn, S.; Mészáros, P.; Meurer, C.; Michelson, P. F.; Mitthumsiri, W.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Monte, C.; Monzani, M. E.; Moretti, E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nakamori, T.; Nolan, P. L.; Norris, J. P.; Nuss, E.; Ohno, M.; Ohsugi, T.; Omodei, N.; Orlando, E.; Ormes, J. F.; Ozaki, M.; Paciesas, W. S.; Paneque, D.; Panetta, J. H.; Parent, D.; Pelassa, V.; Pepe, M.; Pesce-Rollins, M.; Petrosian, V.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Preece, R.; Rainò, S.; Ramirez-Ruiz, E.; Rando, R.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Reposeur, T.; Ritz, S.; Rochester, L. S.; Rodriguez, A. Y.; Roth, M.; Ryde, F.; Sadrozinski, H. F. -W.; Sanchez, D.; Sander, A.; Saz Parkinson, P. M.; Scargle, J. D.; Schalk, T. L.; Sgrò, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, D. A.; Smith, P. D.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stamatikos, M.; Stecker, F. W.; Strickman, M. S.; Suson, D. J.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Takahashi, T.; Tanaka, T.; Thayer, J. B.; Thayer, J. G.; Thompson, D. J.; Tibaldo, L.; Toma, K.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, G.; Troja, E.; Uchiyama, Y.; Uehara, T.; Usher, T. L.; van der Horst, A. J.; Vasileiou, V.; Vilchez, N.; Vitale, V.; von Kienlin, A.; Waite, A. P.; Wang, P.; Wilson-Hodge, C.; Winer, B. L.; Wood, K. S.; Wu, X. F.; Yamazaki, R.; Ylinen, T.; Ziegler, M.

A cornerstone of Einstein's special relativity is Lorentz invariance—the postulate that all observers measure exactly the same speed of light in vacuum, independent of photon-energy. While special relativity assumes that there is no fundamental length-scale associated with such invariance, there is a fundamental scale (the Planck scale, l_Planck ≈ 1.62 x 10^-33 cm or E_Planck = M_Planckc² ≈ 1.22 x 10¹⁹ GeV), at which quantum effects are expected to strongly affect the nature of space–time. There is great interest in the (not yet validated) idea that Lorentz invariance might break near the Planck scale. A key test of such violation of Lorentz invariance is a possible variation of photon speed with energy. Even a tiny variation in photon speed, when accumulated over cosmological light-travel times, may be revealed by observing sharp features in γ-ray burst (GRB) light-curves. In this paper, we report the detection of emission up to ~31 GeV from the distant and short GRB 090510. We find no evidence for the violation of Lorentz invariance, and place a lower limit of 1.2E_Planck on the scale of a linear energy dependence (or an inverse wavelength dependence), subject to reasonable assumptions about the emission (equivalently we have an upper limit of l_Planck/1.2 on the length scale of the effect). Finally, our results disfavour quantum-gravity theories in which the quantum nature of space–time on a very small scale linearly alters the speed of light.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Contributing Organization: Fermi LAT Collaboration; Fermi GBM Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1357435
• Journal Information: Nature (London), Vol. 462, Issue 7271; ISSN 0028-0836
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS