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Register a new userConstraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Fermi-Large Area Telescope Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts
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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 that LIV-inducing QG effects become important, E_QG) 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% CL) are obtained from GRB090510 and are E_{QG,1}>7.6 times the Planck energy (E_Pl) and E_{QG,2}>1.3 x 10^11 GeV for linear and quadratic leading order LIV-induced vacuum dispersion, respectively. 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 E_{QG,1} lesssim E_Pl.
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Some Quantum Gravity (QG) theories allow for a violation of Lorentz invariance (LIV), manifesting as a dependence of the velocity of light in vacuum on its energy. If such a dependence exists, then photons of different energies emitted together by a distant source will arrive at the Earth at different times. High-energy (GeV) transient emissions from distant astrophysical sources such as Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) and Active Galaxy Nuclei can be used to search for and constrain LIV. The Fermi collaboration has previously analyzed two GRBs in order to put constraints on the dispersion parameter in vacuum, and on the energy scale at which QG effects causing LIV may arise. We used three different methods on four bright GRBs observed by the Fermi-LAT to get more stringent and robust constraints. No delays have been detected and strong limits on the QG energy scale are derived: for linear dispersion we set tight constraints placing the QG energy scale above the Planck mass; a quadratic leading LIV effect is also constrained.
The constancy of light speed is a basic assumption in Einsteins special relativity, and consequently the Lorentz invariance is a fundamental symmetry of space-time in modern physics. However, it is speculated that the speed of light becomes energy-dependent due to the Lorentz invariance violation~(LV) in various new physics theories. We analyse the data of the energetic photons from the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, and find more events to support the energy dependence in the light speed with both linear and quadratic form corrections. We provide two scenarios to understand all the new-released Pass~8 data of bright GRBs by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration, with predictions from such scenarios being testable by future detected GRBs.
Due to the high energies and long distances to the sources, astrophysical observations provide a unique opportunity to test possible signatures of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). Superluminal LIV enables the decay of photons at high energy. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is among the most sensitive gamma-ray instruments currently operating above 10 TeV. HAWC finds evidence of 100 TeV photon emission from at least four astrophysical sources. These observations exclude, for the strongest of the limits set, the LIV energy scale to $2.2times10^{31}$ eV, over 1800 times the Planck energy and an improvement of 1 to 2 orders of magnitude over previous limits.
The Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) includes photons with wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared, which are effective at attenuating gamma rays with energy above ~10 GeV during propagation from sources at cosmological distances. This results in a redshift- and energy-dependent attenuation of the gamma-ray flux of extragalactic sources such as blazars and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). The Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi detects a sample of gamma-ray blazars with redshift up to z~3, and GRBs with redshift up to z~4.3. Using photons above 10 GeV collected by Fermi over more than one year of observations for these sources, we investigate the effect of gamma-ray flux attenuation by the EBL. We place upper limits on the gamma-ray opacity of the Universe at various energies and redshifts, and compare this with predictions from well-known EBL models. We find that an EBL intensity in the optical-ultraviolet wavelengths as great as predicted by the baseline model of Stecker et al. (2006) can be ruled out with high confidence.
A number of works have claimed detections of a turn-over in the spectral lag data for individual Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), caused by an energy-dependent speed of light, which could be a possible manifestation of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). Here, we stack the spectral lag data from a total of 37 GRBs (with a total of 91 measurements), to verify if the combined data is consistent with a unified model consisting of intrinsic astrophysical emission, along with another contribution due to LIV. We then carry out Bayesian model comparison to ascertain if this combined spectral lag data shows a preference for an energy-dependent speed of light, as compared to only an intrinsic astrophysical emission mechanism. We do not find a decisive evidence for such an energy-dependent speed of light for two different models of LIV. When we assume a constant intrinsic lag coupled with an unknown intrinsic scatter, we do not find any evidence for LIV. However, when we use GRB-dependent parameters to model the intrinsic emission, we get decisive evidence for LIV violation. We then carry out a search for LIV Standard Model Extension using this dataset as well as an independent search using a separate dataset consisting of rest-frame spectral lags. Finally, none of the models considered here with any of the aforementioned assumptions provide a good fit to the stacked spectral lag data, indicating that there is still missing Physics in the model for intrinsic spectral lags.
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