Photon Mass Bound Destroyed by Vortices

Abstract

The Particle Data Group gives an upper bound on the photon mass $m<2\times 10^{-16}$eV from a laboratory experiment and lists, but does not adopt, an astronomical bound $m<3\times 10^{-27}$eV, both of which are based on the plausible assumption of large galactic vector-potential. We argue that the interpretations of these experiments should be changed, which alters significantly the bounds on $m$. If $m$ arises from a Higgs effect, both limits are invalid because the Proca vector-potential of the galactic magnetic field may be neutralized by vortices giving a large-scale magnetic field that is effectively Maxwellian. In this regime, experiments sensitive to the Proca potential do not yield a useful bound on $m$. As a by-product, the non-zero photon mass from Higgs effect predicts generation of a primordial magnetic field in the early universe. If, on the other hand, the galactic magnetic field is in the Proca regime, the very existence of the observed large-scale magnetic field gives $m^{-1}\gtrsim 1$kpc, or $m\lesssim 10^{-26}$eV.

9 pages, discussion of primordial magnetic field added

References in corpus (1)

• (Quasi)Localized Gauge Field on a Brane: Dissipating Cosmic Radiation to Extra Dimensions?

Cited by in corpus (48)

• The Low-Energy Frontier of Particle Physics
• Photon and Graviton Mass Limits
• Primordial magnetogenesis
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture: A Review
• Photon Mass Limits from Fast Radio Bursts
• Photon Masses in the Landscape and the Swampland
• Continuous Global Symmetries and Hyperweak Interactions in String Compactifications
• FRB 121102 Casts New Light on the Photon Mass
• Anomaly driven signatures of new invisible physics at the Large Hadron Collider
• Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals
• Testing Lorentz Invariance Violation with WMAP Five Year Data
• Symmetron Scalar Fields: Modified Gravity, Dark Matter or Both?
• Electromagnetic Signatures of Dark Photon Superradiance
• Testing Atom and Neutron Neutrality with Atom Interferometry
• Solar wind test of the de Broglie-Proca's massive photon with Cluster multi-spacecraft data
• Dark photon vortex formation and dynamics
• Photon sector analysis of Super and Lorentz symmetry breaking: effective photon mass, bi-refringence and dissipation
• Dispersion by pulsars, magnetars, fast radio bursts and massive electromagnetism at very low radio frequencies
• Localization of Gauge Fields and Monopole Tunnelling
• Vortices in Black Holes
• Tight constraint on photon mass from pulsar spindown
• Upper bounds on the photon mass
• Coulomb's law corrections and fermion field localization in a tachyonic de Sitter thick braneworld
• A cosmological bound on $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ mass difference
• Bound on the Photon Charge from the Phase Coherence of Extragalactic Radiation
• Astrophysical Bounds on the Photon Charge and Magnetic Moment
• Anomalies as a signature of extra dimensions
• The relation between the model of a crystal with defects and Plebanski's theory of gravity
• Counting of States in Higgs Theories
• Photon mass and electrogenesis
• Gravitational lensing time delays with massive photons
• Bounding the Photon Mass with the Dedispersed Pulses of the Crab Pulsar and FRB 180916B
• Dynamics of Confined Monopoles and Similarities with Confined Quarks
• Testing the Ampère-Maxwell law on the photon mass and Lorentz-Poincaré symmetry violation with MMS multi-spacecraft data
• Stueckelberg Bosons as an Ultralight Dark Matter Candidate
• Do neutrinos bend? Consequences of an ultralight gauge field as dark matter
• Electrodynamics on Cosmological Scales
• Dirac Equation for Photons: Origin of Polarisation
• Stochastic Mechanics Without Ad Hoc Quantization: Theory And Applications To Semiclassical Gravity
• Constraining new fundamental physics with multiwavelength astrometry
• Superconducting Dark Matter
• Inflation and late time acceleration designed by Stueckelberg massive photon
• No Proca Photons
• Massive-photon electrodynamics and MHD in curved spacetime and cosmology
• Bounds on ortho-positronium and $J/\psi$-${\rm Y}$ quarkonia invisible decays and constraints on hidden braneworlds in a $SO(3,1)$-broken 5D bulk
• The Cauchy problem for the Proca equation in gravitating dielectric media
• Improved Dark Photon Sensitivity from the Dark SRF Experiment
• Dyons with hidden electric charges and the long-range magnetic force