Bounds on Lorentz invariance violation from MAGIC observation of GRB 190114C

Abstract

On January 14, 2019, the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov telescopes detected GRB 190114C above 0.2 TeV, recording the most energetic photons ever observed from a gamma-ray burst. We use this unique observation to probe an energy dependence of the speed of light in vacuo for photons as predicted by several quantum gravity models. Based on a set of assumptions on the possible intrinsic spectral and temporal evolution, we obtain competitive lower limits on the quadratic leading order of speed of light modification.

8 pages, 5 figures, Published in Physical Review Letters, Corresponding authors: Tomislav Terzić ([email protected]), Giacomo D'Amico ([email protected]), Daniel Kerszberg ([email protected]), Cedric Perennes ([email protected])