No Arabic abstract
(ABRIDGED) The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will measure the spectra of distant extragalactic sources of high energy gamma-rays. GLAST can look for energy dependent propagation effects from such sources as a signal of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). Such sources should also exhibit high energy spectral cutoffs from pair production interactions with low energy photons. The properties of such cutoffs can also be used to test LIV. Detectors to measure gamma-ray polarization can look for the depolarizing effect of space-time birefingence predicted by loop quantum gravity. A spaceborne detector array looking down on Earth to study extensive air showers produced by ultrahigh energy cosmic rays can study their spectral properties and look for a possible deviation from the predicted GZK effect as another signal of LIV.
We discuss some of the tests of Lorentz symmetry made possible by astrophysical observations of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays, and neutrinos. These are among the most sensitive tests of Lorentz symmetry violation because they are the highest energy phenomena known to man.
We study graviton-graviton scattering in partial-wave amplitudes after unitarizing their Born terms. In order to apply S-matrix techniques, based on unitarity and analyticity, we introduce an S-matrix free of infrared divergences. This is achieved by removing a diverging phase factor related to the infinite-range character of the interactions mediated by graviton exchange in the crossed channels. A scalar graviton-graviton resonance with vacuum quantum numbers (J^{PC}=0^{++}) is obtained as a pole in the nonperturbative S-wave amplitude, which we call the {it graviball}. Its resonant effects along the physical real s axis may peak at values much lower than the UV cutoff of the theory. For some scenarios, this phenomenon could have phenomenological consequences at relatively low-energy scales.
Modified theories of gravity have received a renewed interest due to their ability to account for the cosmic acceleration. In order to satisfy the solar system tests of gravity, these theories need to include a screening mechanism that hides the modifications on small scales. One popular and well-studied theory is chameleon gravity. Our own galaxy is necessarily screened, but less dense dwarf galaxies may be unscreened and their constituent stars can exhibit novel features. In particular, unscreened stars are brighter, hotter and more ephemeral than screened stars in our own galaxy. They also pulsate with a shorter period. In this essay, we exploit these new features to constrain chameleon gravity to levels three orders of magnitude lower the previous measurements. These constraints are currently the strongest in the literature.
The apparent sizes and brightnesses of galaxies are correlated in a dipolar pattern around matter overdensities in redshift space, appearing larger on their near side and smaller on their far side. The opposite effect occurs for galaxies around an underdense region. These patterns of apparent magnification induce dipole and higher multipole terms in the cross-correlation of galaxy number density fluctuations with galaxy size/brightness (which is sensitive to the convergence field). This provides a means of directly measuring peculiar velocity statistics at low and intermediate redshift, with several advantages for performing cosmological tests of GR. In particular, it does not depend on empirically-calibrated scaling relations like the Tully-Fisher and Fundamental Plane methods. We show that the next generation of spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys will be able to measure the Doppler magnification effect with sufficient signal-to-noise to test GR on large scales. We illustrate this with forecasts for the constraints that can be achieved on parametrised deviations from GR for forthcoming low-redshift galaxy surveys with DESI and SKA2. Although the cross-correlation statistic considered has a lower signal to noise than RSD, it will be a useful probe of GR since it is sensitive to different systematics.
We use the Relativistic Precession Model (RPM) (Stella et al. 1999a) and quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) observations from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer to derive constraints on the properties of the black holes that power these sources and to test General Relativity (GR) in the strong field regime. We extend the techniques outlined by Motta et al. (2014a,b) to use pairs of simultaneously measured QPOs, rather than triplets, and extend the underlying spacetime metric to constrain potential deviations from the predictions of GR for astrophysical black holes. To do this, we modify the RPM model to a Kerr-Newman-deSitter spacetime and model changes in the radial, ecliptic, and vertical frequencies. We compare our models with X-ray data of XTE J1550-564 and GRO J1655-40 using robust statistical techniques to constrain the parameters of the black holes and the deviations from GR. For both sources we constrain particular deviations from GR to be less than one part per thousand.