Strict Limit on CPT Violation from Polarization of Gamma-Ray Bursts
Abstract
We report the strictest observational verification of CPT invariance in the photon sector, as a result of gamma-ray polarization measurement of distant gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are brightest stellar-size explosions in the universe. We detected the gamma-ray polarization of three GRBs with high significance, and the source distances may be constrained by a well-known luminosity indicator for GRBs. For the Lorentz- and CPT-violating dispersion relation E_{\pm}^2=p^2 \pm 2\xi p^3/M_{Pl}, where \pm denotes different circular polarization states of the photon, the parameter \xi is constrained as |\xi|<O(10^{-15}). Barring precise cancellation between quantum gravity effects and dark energy effects, the stringent limit on the CPT-violating effect leads to the expectation that quantum gravity presumably respects the CPT invariance.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1208.5288,
title = {Strict Limit on CPT Violation from Polarization of Gamma-Ray Bursts},
author = {Kenji Toma and Shinji Mukohyama and Daisuke Yonetoku and Toshio Murakami and Shuichi Gunji and Tatehiro Mihara and Yoshiyuki Morihara and Tomonori Sakashita and Takuya Takahashi and Yudai Wakashima and Hajime Yonemochi and Noriyuki Toukairin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.5288},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
4 pages; accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters; redshift estimates of GRBs changed (i.e z=0.382 was wrong for GRB 110721A) and calculations of \xi limit improved from the previous version