Bounds on Spectral Dispersion from Fermi-detected Gamma Ray Bursts

Abstract

Data from four Fermi-detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is used to set limits on spectral dispersion of electromagnetic radiation across the universe. The analysis focuses on photons recorded above 1 GeV for Fermi detected GRB 080916C, GRB 090510A, GRB 090902B, and GRB 090926A because these high-energy photons yield the tightest bounds on light dispersion. It is shown that significant photon bunches in GRB 090510A, possibly classic GRB pulses, are remarkably brief, an order of magnitude shorter in duration than any previously claimed temporal feature in this energy range. Although conceivably a $>3\sigma$ fluctuation, when taken at face value, these pulses lead to an order of magnitude tightening of prior limits on photon dispersion. Bound of $\Delta c/c<6.94$ x $10^{-21}$ is thus obtained. Given generic dispersion relations where the time delay is proportional to the photon energy to the first or second power, the most stringent limits on the dispersion strengths were $k_1<$ 1.61 x $10^{-5}$ sec Gpc${}^{-1}$ GeV${}^{-1}$ and $k_2<$ 3.57 x $10^{-7}$ sec Gpc${}^{-1}$ GeV${}^{-2}$ respectively. Such limits constrain dispersive effects created, for example, by the spacetime foam of quantum gravity. In the context of quantum gravity, our bounds set $M_1{c}^2$ greater than 525 times the Planck mass, suggesting that spacetime is smooth at energies near and slightly above the Planck mass.

4 pages, 1 figure, accepted to PRL

References in corpus (6)

• Lorentz-violation-induced arrival delays of cosmological particles
• Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
• The redshift and afterglow of the extremely energetic gamma-ray burst GRB 080916C
• Adventures in Friedmann Cosmology: An Educationally Detailed Expansion of the Cosmological Friedmann Equations
• Extension of an Exponential Light Curve GRB Pulse Model Across Energy Bands
• Stringy Space-Time Foam and High-Energy Cosmic Photons

Cited by in corpus (32)

• A decade of Gamma-Ray Bursts observed by $Fermi$-LAT: The 2${}^{nd}$ GRB catalog
• Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Fermi-Large Area Telescope Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Lorentz violation from gamma-ray bursts
• Robust Constraint on Lorentz Violation Using Fermi-LAT Gamma-Ray Burst Data
• A New Test of Lorentz Invariance Violation: the Spectral Lag Transition of GRB 160625B
• Model-Independent Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation via the Cosmographic Approach
• New Constraints on Quantum Gravity from X-ray and Gamma-Ray Observations
• A unified constraint on the Lorentz invariance violation from both short and long GRBs
• Lorentz Invariance Violation Limits from the Spectral Lag Transition of GRB~190114C
• A Further Test of Lorentz Violation from the Rest-Frame Spectral Lags of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• New constraints on Lorentz invariance violation with polarized gamma-ray bursts
• Testing Noncommutative Spacetimes and Violations of the Pauli Exclusion Principle with underground experiments
• Beyond Special Relativity at second order
• Gamma-rays as probes of the Universe
• A framework for the next generation of stationary cosmological models
• Constraints on quantum gravity and the photon mass from gamma ray bursts
• Gamma-ray burst polarization reduction induced by the Lorentz invariance violation
• Does a deformation of special relativity imply energy dependent photon time delays?
• Electromagnetic waves propagating in the string axiverse
• Quantum gravity without vacuum dispersion
• Spacetime and deformations of special relativistic kinematics
• Astrophysical and Cosmological Searches for Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Hypothesis on the Nature of Time
• Tests of Lorentz Invariance
• Twin Peaks: A possible signal in the production of resonances beyond special relativity
• Constraining the Bulk Lorentz Factor of GRB Outflow in the Magnetic-dominated Jet Model
• Bounds on the Polymer Scale from Gamma Ray Bursts
• An experiment to test the discreteness of time
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics
• Lifshitz-scaling in CPT-even Lorentz-violating electrodynamics and GRB time delay
• Evidence for Rapid Variability at High Energies in GRBs
• Nonrelativistic Yang-Mills Theory for a Naturally Light Higgs Boson