A Bayesian Framework to Constrain the Photon Mass with a Catalog of Fast Radio Bursts

Abstract

A hypothetical photon mass, $m_{\gamma }$, gives an energy-dependent light speed in a Lorentz-invariant theory. Such a modification causes an additional time delay between photons of different energies when they travel through a fixed distance. Fast radio bursts (FRBs), with their short time duration and cosmological propagation distance, are excellent astrophysical objects to constrain $m_{\gamma }$. Here for the first time we develop a Bayesian framework to study this problem with a catalog of FRBs. Those FRBs with and without redshift measurement are both useful in this framework, and can be combined in a Bayesian way. A catalog of 21 FRBs (including 20 FRBs without redshift measurement, and one, FRB 121102, with a measured redshift $z=0.19273\pm 0.00008$) give a combined limit $m_{\gamma }\le 8.7\times 10^{-51}\mathrm{kg}$, or equivalently $m_{\gamma }\le 4.9\times 10^{-15}\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ ($m_{\gamma }\le 1.5\times 10^{-50}\mathrm{kg}$, or equivalently $m_{\gamma }\le 8.4\times 10^{-15}\mathrm{eV}/c^2$) at 68% (95%) confidence level, which represents the best limit that comes purely from kinematics. The framework proposed here will be valuable when FRBs are observed daily in the future. Increment in the number of FRBs, and refinement in the knowledge about the electron distributions in the Milky Way, the host galaxies of FRBs, and the intergalactic median, will further tighten the constraint.

10 pages, 6 figures; Physical Review D, in press

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• Cosmology-insensitive estimate of IGM baryon mass fraction from five localized fast radio bursts
• Cosmology with fast radio bursts in the era of SKA
• Prospects of strongly lensed repeating fast radio bursts: complementary constraints on dark energy evolution
• Cosmology and the massive photon frequency shift in the Standard-Model Extension
• Constraints on quantum gravity and the photon mass from gamma ray bursts
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• Cosmography from well-localized Fast Radio Bursts
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• Fast radio burst detection in the presence of coloured noise
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• The BINGO Project IX: Search for Fast Radio Bursts -- A Forecast for the BINGO Interferometry System
• Bounding the Photon Mass with Ultrawide Bandwidth Pulsar Timing Data and Dedispersed Pulses of Fast Radio Bursts
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• Relativistic Astronomy. II. In-Flight Solution of Motion and Test of Special Relativity Light Aberration
• Probing Cosmic Curvature with Fast Radio Bursts and DESI DR2
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• Residual gauge-invariance in a massive Lorentz-violating extension of QED
• Bounding the photon mass with cosmological propagation of fast radio bursts
• Unveiling the distribution and redshift dependence of host galaxy dispersion measures using localized fast radio bursts