Related papers: Photon dispersion in causal sets
The effect of quantum gravity can bring a tiny light speed variation which is detectable through energetic photons propagating from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) to an observer such as the space observatory. Through an analysis of the energetic…
According to Einstein's special relativity theory, the speed of light in a vacuum is constant for all observers. However, quantum gravity effects could introduce its dispersion depending on the energy of photons. The investigation of the…
We discuss the prospects for bounding and perhaps even measuring quantum gravity effects on the dispersion of light using the highest energy photons produced in gamma ray bursts measured by the Fermi telescope. These prospects are brigher…
We examine a method to detect the light speed variation from gamma ray burst data observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST). We suggest new criteria to determine the characteristic time for low energy photons by the energy…
Data from four Fermi-detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is used to set limits on spectral dispersion of electromagnetic radiation across the universe. The analysis focuses on photons recorded above 1 GeV for Fermi detected GRB 080916C, GRB…
Typical observational gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectra are discussed and, in this connection, what is the origin of the compactness problem and how it was solved at first. If the threshold for $e^{-}e^{+}$ pair production depends on an angle…
One of the cornerstones of special relativity is the postulate that all observers measure exactly the same photon speeds independently on the photon energies. However, a hypothesized structure of spacetime may alter this conclusion at…
The discovery of the Fermi bubbles---a huge bilobular structure seen in GeV gamma-rays above and below the Galactic center---implies the presence of a large reservoir of high energy particles at $\sim 10 \, \text{kpc}$ from the disk. The…
We present analytical solutions for the integral distribution of arbitrary bursting or steady source counts as a function of peak photon count rate within Friedmann cosmological models. We discuss both the standard candle and truncated…
A hypothetical photon mass, $m_{\gamma}$, can produce a frequency-dependent vacuum dispersion of light, which leads to an additional time delay between photons with different frequencies when they propagate through a fixed distance. The…
An analytic relation between the statistics of photons in pixels and the number counts of multi-photon point sources is used to constrain the distribution of gamma-ray point sources below the Fermi detection limit at energies above 1 GeV…
DisCan is a new algorithm implementing photon dispersion cancellation in order to measure energy-dependent delays in variable sources. This method finds the amount of reversed dispersion that optimally cancels any actual dispersion present.…
We show that an extragalactic jet with a velocity shear gives rise to Fermi like acceleration process for photons scattering withing the shear layers of the jet. Such photons then gain energy to produce a high energy power law. These power…
MeV seed photons produced in shocks in a variable ultra-relativistic outflow gain energy by the Fermi mechanism, because the photons Compton scatter off relativistically colliding shells. The Fermi-modified high-energy photon spectrum has a…
We explore a new mechanism for photon energy gain in a relativistic plasma with velocity shear. This process takes place in optically thick plasma and resembles conventional Fermi acceleration, where photons undergo multiple scatterings…
One of the cornerstones of modern physics is Einstein's special relativity, with its constant speed of light and zero photon mass assumptions. Constraint on the rest mass m_{\gamma} of photons is a fundamental way to test Einstein's theory,…
From recent observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), it appears that spectral time lags between higher-energy gamma rays photons and lower-energy photons vary with energy difference and time (distance) traveled. These lags appear to be…
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are short and intense pulses of $\gamma$-rays arriving from random directions in the sky. Several years ago Amelino-Camelia et al. pointed out that a comparison of time of arrival of photons at different energies…
Possible formulations of the problem of cosmic rays acceleration in the interstellar galactic medium are considered with the use of fractional differential equations. The applied technique has been physically justified. A Fermi result has…
After almost 4 years of operation, the two instruments onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have shown that the number of gamma-ray bursts with high energy photon emission above 100 MeV cannot exceed roughly 9% of the total number of…