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Constraints on birefringence-free photon theory within standard-model extension

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-02-04 v2

Abstract

Constraints on the birefringence-free subset of Lorentz-violating (LV) operators are derived using 14 GRB photons in the GeV-band. These constraints target the isotropic c(I)00(d)c_{(I)00}^{(d)} coefficients for dimensions d=6,8,10d=6,8,10 within the framework of the Standard-Model Extension (SME). Employing theory-agnostic Bayesian parameter estimation methods, our analysis indicates a preference for subluminal LV effects. Focusing on this case, we further refine the parameter constraints, yielding results that are mutually consistent. Within the 95\% posterior credible interval, our constraints yield the bounds, c(I)00(6)7.75×1020 GeV2|c_{(I)00}^{(6)}|\le7.75 \times 10^{-20} ~ {\rm GeV}^{-2}, c(I)00(8)4.92×1024 GeV4|c_{(I)00}^{(8)}|\le4.92 \times 10^{-24} ~ {\rm GeV}^{-4}, and c(I)00(10)3.46×1028 GeV6|c_{(I)00}^{(10)}|\le3.46 \times 10^{-28} ~ {\rm GeV}^{-6}, which improve upon the most stringent credible-interval bounds reported in the literature by at least five orders of magnitude.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.01243,
  title  = {Constraints on birefringence-free photon theory within standard-model extension},
  author = {Zhi Xiao and Hanlin Song and Bo-Qiang Ma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.01243},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

12pages, 2 figures