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

A.A. Abdo , Markus Ackermann , Marco Ajello , K. Asano , William B. Atwood , Magnus Axelsson , Luca Baldini , Jean Ballet (1) , Guido Barbiellini , Matthew G. Baring , D. Bastieri , K. Bechtol , R. Bellazzini (1) , B. Berenji , P. N. Bhat , E. Bissaldi , E.D. Bloom , E. Bonamente , J. Bonnell , A.W. Borgland , A. Bouvier , J. Bregeon , A. Brez , M. S. Briggs , M. Brigida , Pascal Bruel (2) , J.M. Burgess , T.H. Burnett , G. A. Caliandro , R. A. Cameron , P. A. Caraveo , J.M. Casandjian (1) , C. Cecchi , O. Celik , V. Chaplin , E. Charles , C.C. Cheung , J. Chiang , S. Ciprini , R. Claus , J. Cohen-Tanugi (3) , L. R. Cominsky , V. Connaughton , J. Conrad , S. Cutini , C.D. Dermer , A. de Angelis , F. de Palma , S.W. Digel , B. L. Dingus , E. Do Couto E Silva , P. S. Drell , R. Dubois , D. Dumora (4) , C. Farnier (3) , C. Favuzzi , S.J. Fegan (2) , J. Finke , G. Fishman , W.B. Focke , L. Foschini , Y. Fukazawa , S. Funk , P. Fusco , F. Gargano , D. Gasparrini , N. Gehrels , S. Germani , L. Gibby , B. Giebels (2) , N. Giglietto , F. Giordano , T. Glanzman , G. Godfrey , J. Granot , J. Greiner , I.A. Grenier (1) , M.H. Grondin (4) , J.E. Grove , D. Grupe , L. Guillemot (4) , S. Guiriec (3) , Y. Hanabata , A. K. Harding , M. Hayashida , E. Hays , E.A. Hoversten , R.E. Hugues , G. Jóhannesson , A. S. Johnson , R. P. Johnson , W. N. Johnson , T. Kamae , H. Katagiri , J. Kataoka , N. Kawai , M. Kerr , R. M. Kippen , Jürgen Knödlseder , D. Kocevski , C. Kouveliotou , F. Kuehn , M. Kuss , J. Lande , L. Latronico , M. Lemoine-Goumard (4) , F. Longo , F. Loparco , B. Lott (4) , M.N. Lovellette , P. Lubrano , G.M. Madjeski , A. Makeev , M.N. Mazziotta , S. Mcbreen , J.E. Mcenery , S. Mcglynn , P. Mészáros , C. Meurer , P.F. Michelson , W. Mitthumsiri , T. Mizuno , A.A. Moiseev , C. Monte , M.E. Monzani , E. Moretti , A. Morselli , I. V. Moskalenko , S. Murgia , T. Nakamori , P.L. Nolan , J.P. Norris , E. Nuss (3) , M. Ohno , T. Ohsugi , N. Omodei , E. Orlando , J.F. Ormes , M. Ozaki , W. S. Paciesas , D. Paneque , J.H. Panetta , D. Parent (4) , V. Pelassa (3) , M. Pepe , M. Pesce-Rollins , V. Petrosian , F. Piron (3) , T.A. Porter , R. Preece , S. Rainò , E. Ramirez-Ruiz , R. Rando , M. Razzano , S. Razzaque , A. Reimer , O. Reimer , T. Reposeur (4) , S. Ritz , L.S. Rochester , A.Y. Rodriguez , M. Roth , F. Ryde , H. F.-W. Sadrozinski , D. Sanchez (2) , A. Sander , P.M. Saz Parkinson , J.D. Scargle , T. L. Schalk , G. Sgro , E.J. Siskind , D.A. Smith (4) , P.D. Smith , G. Spandre , P. Spinelli , M. Stamatikos , F. W. Stecker , M.S. Strickman , D.J. Suson , H. Tajima , H. Takahashi , T. Takahashi , T. Tanaka , J.B. Thayer , J.G. Thayer , D.J. Thompson , L. Tibaldo (1) , K. Toma , D.F. Torres , G. Tosti , E. Troja , Y. Uchiyama , T. Uehara , T.L. Usher , A. J. van Der Horst , V. Vasileiou , N. Vilchez (5) , V. Vitale , A. von Kienlin , A. P. Waite , P. Wang , C. Wilson-Hodge , B. L. Winer , K.S. Wood , X. F. Wu , R. Yamazaki , T. Ylinen , M. Ziegler

1 AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112) - Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation
2 LLR - Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet
3 LPTA - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Astroparticules
4 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan
5 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements

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) approximate to 1.62 x 10(-33) cm or E-Planck = M(Planck)c(2) approximate to 1.22 x 10(19) 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(1-7). Even a tiny variation in photon speed, when accumulated over cosmological light-travel times, may be revealed by observing sharp features in gamma-ray burst (GRB) light-curves(2). Here we report the detection of emission up to similar to 31GeV from the distant and short GRB090510. 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). Our results disfavour quantum-gravity theories(3,6,7) in which the quantum nature of space-time on a very small scale linearly alters the speed of light.

Mots clés: GAMMA-RAY BURSTS; HIGH-ENERGY; VIOLATION; EMISSION; PHOTONS; LORENTZ; TESTS; FOAM

Domaines: Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]

A.A. Abdo, Markus Ackermann, Marco Ajello, K. Asano, William B. Atwood, et al.. A limit on the variation of the speed of light arising from quantum gravity effects. Nature, 2009, 462, pp.331-334. ⟨10.1038/nature08574⟩. ⟨in2p3-00436584⟩