String Quantum Gravity, Lorentz-Invariance Violation and Gamma-Ray Astronomy

Abstract

In the first part of the review, I discuss ways of obtaining Lorentz-Invariance-Violating (LIV) space-time foam in the modern context of string theory, involving brane world scenarios. The foamy structures are provided by lower-dimensional background brane defects in a D3-brane Universe, whose density is a free parameter to be constrained phenomenologically. Such constraining can be provided by high energy gamma-ray photon tests, including ultra-high energy/infrared photon-photon scattering. In the second part, I analyze the currently available data from MAGIC and FERMI Telescopes on delayed cosmic photon arrivals in this context. It is understood of course that conventional Astrophysics source effects, which currently are far from being understood, might be the dominant reason for the observed delayed arrivals. I also discuss how the stringent constraints from studies of synchrotron-radiation from distant Nebulae, absence of cosmic birefringence and non observation of ultra-high-energy cosmic photons can be accommodated within the aforementioned stringy space-time foam model. I argue that, at least within the currently available sets of astrophysical data, the stringy foam model can avoid all theses constraints in a natural range of the string coupling and mass scale. The key features are: (i) transparency of the foam to electrons and charged probes in general, (ii) absence of birefringence effects and (iii) a breakdown of the local effective lagrangian formalism. However, in order to accommodate, in this theoretical framework, the data of the FERMI satellite on the delayed arrival of photons from the short intense Gamma Ray Burst GRB 090510, in a way consistent with the findings of the MAGIC telescope, a non uniform density of brane foam defects must be invoked.

76 pages Latex, 16 figures, uses special macros. Invited Review, to appear in Int. Journal of Modern Physics A (World Sci.)

References in corpus (74)

• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Potential Sensitivity of Gamma-Ray Burster Observations to Wave Dispersion in Vacuo
• Lorentz invariance with an invariant energy scale
• Relativity in space-times with short-distance structure governed by an observer-independent (Planckian) length scale
• Noncommutative Field Theory and Lorentz Violation
• Nonstandard optics from quantum spacetime
• An Exceptional VHE Gamma-Ray Flare of PKS 2155-304
• Generalized Lorentz invariance with an invariant energy scale
• Gravity's Rainbow
• Variable VHE gamma-ray emission from Markarian 501
• Logarithmic Operators in Conformal Field Theory
• Brane Dynamics and Gauge Theory
• Fermi Observations of GRB 090902B: A Distinct Spectral Component in the Prompt and Delayed Emission
• Distance Measurement and Wave Dispersion in a Liouville-String Approach to Quantum Gravity
• Lorentz violation and Crab synchrotron emission: a new constraint far beyond the Planck scale
• String Theory Modifies Quantum Mechanics
• General Very Special Relativity is Finsler Geometry
• Planck-scale modified dispersion relations and Finsler geometry
• Probing quantum gravity using photons from a flare of the active galactic nucleus Markarian 501 observed by the MAGIC telescope
• Deformed Boost Transformations That Saturate at the Planck Scale
• Astrophysical Probes of the Constancy of the Velocity of Light
• Robust Limits on Lorentz Violation from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Direct measurement of superluminal group velocity and of signal velocity in an optical fiber
• String Theory and the Space-Time Uncertainty Principle
• Faster-than-c signals, special relativity, and causality
• Prospects for constraining quantum gravity dispersion with near term observations
• Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
• Quantum-Gravitational Diffusion and Stochastic Fluctuations in the Velocity of Light
• Astrophysical limits on quantum gravity motivated birefringence
• Logarithmic Operators and Hidden Continuous Symmetry in Critical Disordered Models
• Modelling the TeV gamma-ray spectra of two low redshift AGNs: Mkn 501 and Mkn 421
• Speed of Light in Non--Trivial Vacua
• D-Brane Recoil and Logarithmic Operators
• Lorentz Violation for Photons and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Synchrotron Radiation from the Crab Nebula Discriminates between Models of Space-Time Foam
• Limits on an Energy Dependence of the Speed of Light from a Flare of the Active Galaxy PKS 2155-304
• Derivative corrections to D-brane actions with constant background fields
• Nonsemisimple Fusion Algebras and the Verlinde Formula
• World-Sheet Logarithmic Operators and Target Space Symmetries in String Theory
• Is Supersymmetry Really Broken?
• Superluminality and UV Completion
• Quantum Gravitational Optics
• Field theory on $\kappa$--Minkowski space revisited: Noether charges and breaking of Lorentz symmetry
• The Refractive Index of Curved Spacetime: the Fate of Causality in QED
• A supersymmetric D-brane Model of Space-Time Foam
• Bounds on an energy-dependent and observer-independent speed of light from violations of locality
• Lorentz Violation and Ultrahigh-Energy Photons
• Matrix D-brane Dynamics, Logarithmic Operators and Quantization of Noncommutative Spacetime
• Dynamical Formation of Horizons in Recoiling D Branes
• Time Delays of Strings in D-particle Backgrounds and Vacuum Refractive Indices
• Probes of Lorentz Violation in Neutrino Propagation
• A Microscopic Liouville Arrow of Time
• Causality and Micro-Causality in Curved Spacetime
• Low-Scale Closed Strings and their Duals
• Space-Time Foam Effects on Particle Interactions and the GZK Cutoff
• Potentials between D-Branes in a Supersymmetric Model of Space-Time Foam
• Liouville Cosmology at Zero and Finite Temperatures
• Space-Time Foam may Violate the Principle of Equivalence
• Probing a Possible Vacuum Refractive Index with Gamma-Ray Telescopes
• D-Brane Recoil Mislays Information
• D-Matter
• Probing the Planck Scale with Neutrino Oscillations
• Gamma-ray polarization constraints on Planck scale violations of special relativity
• Fedosov Quantization of Lagrange-Finsler and Hamilton-Cartan Spaces and Einstein Gravity Lifts on (Co) Tangent Bundles
• The velocities of light in modified QED vacua
• Decoherent Scattering of Light Particles in a D-Brane Background
• When Did Cosmic Acceleration Start ?
• The Higgs mechanism in Finsler spacetimes
• Relativistic Modified Newtonian Dynamics from String Theory?
• Vacuum Energy and Cosmological Supersymmetry Breaking in Brane Worlds
• Ultra high energy photons as probes of Lorentz symmetry violations in stringy space-time foam models
• Brany Liouville Inflation
• A model for delayed emission in a very-high energy gamma-ray flare in Markarian 501
• The O(n) Model in the $n\to 0$ Limit (self-avoiding-walks) and Logarithmic Conformal Field Theory

Cited by in corpus (37)

• Quantum Spacetime Phenomenology
• Lifshitz-type Quantum Field Theories in Particle Physics
• Robust Constraint on Lorentz Violation Using Fermi-LAT Gamma-Ray Burst Data
• Implications of a Stochastic Microscopic Finsler Cosmology
• The 2014 TeV Gamma-ray Flare of Mrk 501 Seen with H.E.S.S.: Temporal and Spectral Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Probes of Lorentz Violation
• Limits on Neutrino Lorentz Violation from Multimessenger Observations of TXS 0506+056
• Solar wind test of the de Broglie-Proca's massive photon with Cluster multi-spacecraft data
• Comments on Graviton Propagation in Light of GW150914
• Quantum-Gravity Induced Lorentz Violation and Dynamical Mass Generation
• Environmental CPT Violation in an Expanding Universe in String Theory
• CPT-Violating Leptogenesis induced by Gravitational Defects
• Dispersion by pulsars, magnetars, fast radio bursts and massive electromagnetism at very low radio frequencies
• D-Foam Phenomenology: Dark Energy, the Velocity of Light and a Possible D-Void
• First Combined Study on LIV from Observations of Energy-dependent Time Delays from Multiple-type Gamma-ray Sources -- Part I. Motivation, Method Description and Validation through Simulations of H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS Datasets
• Photon splitting constraint on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Crab Nebula spectrum
• Probing Lorentz Violation in Neutrino Propagation from a Core-Collapse Supernova
• Width of photon decay in magnetic field: elementary semiclassical derivation and sensitivity to Lorentz violation
• Light Speed Variation with Brane/String-Inspired Space-Time Foam
• Quantization of general linear electrodynamics
• One-loop correction to the photon velocity in Lorentz-violating QED
• Stringy Models of Modified Gravity: Space-time defects and Structure Formation
• Galactic and Extragalactic Sources of Very High Energy Gamma-rays
• Dispersion of Light Traveling through the Interstellar Space, Induced and Intrinsic Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Expected Signature For the Lorentz Invariance Violation Effects on $\gamma -\gamma$ Absorption
• A Simple Method to Test for Energy-Dependent Dispersion in High Energy Light-Curves of Astrophysical Sources
• Lorentz and CPT breaking in gamma-ray burst neutrinos from string theory
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics
• Graviton propagation within the context of the D-material universe
• A Novel Foamy Origin for Singlet Fermion Masses
• Neutrinos in the Early Universe, Kalb-Ramond Torsion and Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry
• Comments on Anomaly Cancellations by Pole Subtractions and Ghost Instabilities with Gravity
• Constraints to Lorentz violation and ultrahigh-energy electrons in D-foamy space-times
• The implications of gamma-ray photons from LHAASO on Lorentz symmetry
• Quantum Gravity, Flavour Vacua and Supersymmetry
• Investigation of Zero-Modes for a Dynamical D$p$-Brane
• Constraining D-foam via the 21-cm Line