Gamma Ray Burst Neutrinos Probing Quantum Gravity

Abstract

Very high energy, short wavelength, neutrinos may interact with the space-time foam predicted by theories of quantum gravity. They would propagate like light through a crystal lattice and be delayed, with the delay depending on the energy. This will appear to the observer as a violation of Lorenz invariance. Back of the envelope calculations imply that observations of neutrinos produced by gamma ray bursts may reach Planck-scale sensitivity. We revisit the problem considering two essential complications: the imprecise timing of the neutrinos associated with their poorly understood production mechanism in the source and the indirect nature of their energy measurement made by high energy neutrino telescopes.

14 pages, 2 figures