Constraining Lorentz invariance violation using the Crab Pulsar emission observed up to TeV energies by MAGIC

Abstract

Spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry at energies on the order of the Planck energy or lower is predicted by many quantum gravity theories, implying non-trivial dispersion relations for the photon in vacuum. Consequently, gamma-rays of different energies, emitted simultaneously from astrophysical sources, could accumulate measurable differences in their time of flight until they reach the Earth. Such tests have been carried out in the past using fast variations of gamma-ray flux from pulsars, and more recently from active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. We present new constraints studying the gamma-ray emission of the galactic Crab Pulsar, recently observed up to TeV energies by the MAGIC collaboration. A profile likelihood analysis of pulsar events reconstructed for energies above 400GeV finds no significant variation in arrival time as their energy increases. Ninety-five percent~CL limits are obtained on the effective Lorentz invariance violating energy scale at the level of $E_{{\mathrm{QG}}_1}>5.5\cdot 10^{17}$GeV ($4.5\cdot 10^{17}$GeV) for a linear, and $E_{{\mathrm{QG}}_2}>5.9\cdot 10^{10}$GeV ($5.3\cdot 10^{10}$GeV) for a quadratic scenario, for the subluminal and the superluminal cases, respectively. A substantial part of this study is dedicated to calibration of the test statistic, with respect to bias and coverage properties. Moreover, the limits take into account systematic uncertainties, found to worsen the statistical limits by about 36--42\%. Our constraints would have resulted much more competitive if the intrinsic pulse shape of the pulsar between 200GeV and 400GeV was understood in sufficient detail and allowed inclusion of events well below 400GeV.

References in corpus (53)

• The Gaia mission
• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics
• Quantum Gravity at a Lifshitz Point
• Lorentz-Violating Extension of the Standard Model
• Noncommutative Field Theory
• Potential Sensitivity of Gamma-Ray Burster Observations to Wave Dispersion in Vacuo
• Lorentz invariance with an invariant energy scale
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Modern tests of Lorentz invariance
• Nonstandard optics from quantum spacetime
• Design Concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Ghost Condensation and a Consistent Infrared Modification of Gravity
• The Second Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• The major upgrade of the MAGIC telescopes, Part II: A performance study using observations of the Crab Nebula
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Crab Pulsar and Nebula
• The major upgrade of the MAGIC telescopes, Part I: The hardware improvements and the commissioning of the system
• Performance of the MAGIC stereo system obtained with Crab Nebula data
• The surprising Crab pulsar and its nebula: A review
• Monte Carlo design studies for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Fermi-Large Area Telescope Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Observation of Pulsed Gamma-rays Above 25 GeV from the Crab Pulsar with MAGIC
• Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar
• Prospects for constraining quantum gravity dispersion with near term observations
• Astrophysical Tests of Lorentz and CPT Violation with Photons
• Teraelectronvolt pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar detected by MAGIC
• Loop-Generated Bounds on Changes to the Graviton Dispersion Relation
• Improving the performance of the single-dish Cherenkov telescope MAGIC through the use of signal timing
• A Precise Proper Motion for the Crab Pulsar, and the Difficulty of Testing Spin-Kick Alignment for Young Neutron Stars
• Phase-Resolved Studies of the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Crab, Geminga, and Vela Pulsars
• Phase-resolved energy spectra of the Crab Pulsar in the range of 50-400 GeV measured with the MAGIC Telescopes
• GRB 140206A: the most distant polarized Gamma-Ray Burst
• Observations of the Crab pulsar between 25 GeV and 100 GeV with the MAGIC I telescope
• The very-high energy emission from pulsars: a case for inverse Compton scattering
• A Constraint on Planck-scale Modifications to Electrodynamics with CMB polarization data
• Radio-to-TeV Phase-resolved Emission from the Crab Pulsar: The Annular Gap Model
• Spectral analysis of Fermi-LAT blazars above 50 GeV
• A new method to study energy-dependent arrival delays on photons from astrophysical sources
• Constraints on violation of Lorentz invariance from atmospheric showers initiated by multi-TeV photons
• Restrictions from Lorentz invariance violation on cosmic ray propagation
• Fermi Observations of the Very Hard Gamma-ray Blazar PG 1553+113
• Detection of bridge emission above 50 GeV from the Crab pulsar with the MAGIC telescopes
• Planck-scale constraints on anisotropic Lorentz and CPT invariance violations from optical polarization measurements
• Search for anisotropic Lorentz invariance violation with γ-rays
• Rapid TeV Flaring in Markarian 501
• The optical to gamma-ray emission of the Crab pulsar: a multicomponent model
• Gamma-Ray Emissions from Pulsars: Spectra of the TEV Fluxes from Outer-Gap Accelerators
• Luminosity Evolution of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• Magnetocentrifugal acceleration of bulk motion of plasma in pulsar magnetosphere
• A model for delayed emission in a very-high energy gamma-ray flare in Markarian 501
• Technical Performance of the MAGIC Telescopes
• Status of the new Sum-Trigger system for the MAGIC telescopes
• Polarization of prompt and afterglow emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Bounds on Lorentz invariance violation from MAGIC observation of GRB 190114C
• White Paper and Roadmap for Quantum Gravity Phenomenology in the Multi-Messenger Era
• Constraints on the emission region of 3C 279 during strong flares in 2014 and 2015 through VHE gamma-ray observations with H.E.S.S
• Lorentz Symmetry Violation of Cosmic Photons
• Probing Quantum Gravity with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• 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
• Search for Lorentz Invariance Violation from stacked Gamma-Ray Burst spectral lag data
• Constraining the loop quantum gravity parameter space from phenomenology
• Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from the LHAASO observation of GRB 221009A
• Quantum-spacetime effects on nonrelativistic Schrödinger evolution
• Astrophysical and Cosmological Searches for Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Galactic and Extragalactic Sources of Very High Energy Gamma-rays
• Tests of Lorentz Invariance
• Bounds on Relativistic Deformed Kinematics from the Physics of the Universe Transparency
• Quantum gravity phenomenology at the dawn of the multi-messenger era -- A review
• Time delays, choice of energy-momentum variables and relative locality in doubly special relativity
• Signal estimation in On/Off measurements including event-by-event variables
• New limits on the local Lorentz invariance violation of gravity in the Standard-Model Extension with pulsars
• Observing the Energetic Universe at Very High Energies with the VERITAS Gamma Ray Observatory
• A new perspective on Doubly Special Relativity
• Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from the extraordinary Mrk 421 flare of 2014 using a novel analysis method
• Comprehensive analysis on photon-electron Lorentz-violation parameter plane
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics
• Weak equivalence principle and nonrelativistic limit of general dispersion relations
• The Major Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC)