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Photon is the fundamental quantum of electromagnetic fields, whose mass, $m_{\gamma}$, should be strictly zero in Maxwell's theory. But not all theories adopt this hypothesis. If the rest mass of the photon is not zero, there will be an…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-09-01 Huimei Wang , Xueli Miao , Lijing Shao

A nonzero-mass hypothesis for the photon can produces a frequency-dependent dispersion of light, which results in arrival-time differences of photons with different frequencies originating from a given transient source. Extragalactic fast…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-01-13 Jun-Jie Wei , Xue-Feng Wu

Electromagnetic emissions from astrophysical sources at cosmological distances can be used to estimate the photon mass, $m_{\gamma}$. In this paper, we combine measurements of the dispersion measure ($\mathrm{DM}$) of fast radio bursts…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-05-01 Thais Lemos , Rodrigo Gonçalves , Joel Carvalho , Jailson Alcaniz

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been suggested as an excellent celestial laboratory for testing the zero-mass hypothesis of the photon. In this work, we use the dispersion measure (DM)--redshift measurements of 23 localized FRBs to revisit…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-08-30 Bao Wang , Jun-Jie Wei , Xue-Feng Wu , Martín López-Corredoira

A hypothetical photon mass, $m_\gamma$, gives an energy-dependent light speed in a Lorentz-invariant theory. Such a modification causes an additional time delay between photons of different energies when they travel through a fixed…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2017-06-20 Lijing Shao , Bing Zhang

The frequency-dependent time delays in fast radio bursts (FRBs) can be used to constrain the photon mass, if the FRB redshifts are known, but the similarity between the frequency dependences of dispersion due to plasma effects and a photon…

The assumption that photons are massless is a foundational postulate of modern physics, yet it remains subject to experimental verification. Fast radio bursts (FRBs), with their cosmological distances and precisely measured dispersion,…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-01-26 Yuchen Zhang , Yang Liu , Hongwei Yu , Puxun Wu

We constrain the photon mass from well-localized fast radio bursts (FRBs) using Bayes inference method. The probability distributions of dispersion measures (DM) of host galaxy and intergalactic medium are properly taken into account. The…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-09-21 Hai-Nan Lin , Li Tang , Rui Zou

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,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-10-03 Bo Zhang , Ya-Ting Chai , Yuan-Chuan Zou , Xue-Feng Wu

The photon zero-mass hypothesis has been investigated for a long time using the frequency-dependent time delays of radio emissions from astrophysical sources. However, the search for a rest mass of the photon has been hindered by the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-08-08 Jun-Jie Wei , Xue-Feng Wu

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are radio bursts characterized by millisecond durations, high Galactic latitude positions, and high dispersion measures. Very recently, the cosmological origin of FRB 150418 has been confirmed by \cite{kea16}, and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-05-04 Xue-Feng Wu , Song-Bo Zhang , He Gao , Jun-Jie Wei , Yuan-Chuan Zou , Wei-Hua Lei , Bing Zhang , Zi-Gao Dai , Peter Mészáros

A conservative constraint on the rest mass of the photon can be estimated under the assumption that the frequency dependence of dispersion from astronomical sources is mainly contributed by the nonzero photon mass effect. Photon mass limits…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-03-08 Jun-Jie Wei , Er-Kang Zhang , Song-Bo Zhang , Xue-Feng Wu

The gravitational time delays of macro-lenses can be used to constrain the rest mass of the photon with high accuracy. Assuming a point-mass $+$ external shear lens model, we prove that an upper limit of the photon mass can be derived…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-01-28 Chen-Ming Chang , Jun-Jie Wei , Ke-Lai Meng , Song-Bo Zhang , Hao-Xuan Gao , Jin-Jun Geng , Xue-Feng Wu

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have emerged as powerful cosmological probes in recent years offering valuable insights into cosmic expansion. These predominantly extragalactic transients encode information on the expansion of the Universe through…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-01-09 Jéferson A. S. Fortunato , David J. Bacon , Wiliam S. Hipólito-Ricaldi , David Wands

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) offer a powerful probe of the ionized Universe through their dispersion measures (DM). While a significant fraction of the DM arises from the intergalactic medium (IGM), the contributions from the host galaxy and…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-13 Gunalan Muthusami , Gopal Kashyap

Lorentz invariance violation in quantum gravity (QG) models or a nonzero photon mass, $m_\gamma$, would lead to an energy-dependent propagation speed for photons, such that photons of different energies from a distant source would arrive at…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-11-19 Deaglan J. Bartlett , Harry Desmond , Pedro G. Ferreira , Jens Jasche

Exploring the concept of a massive photon has been an important area in astronomy and physics. If photons have mass, their propagation in nonvacuum space would be affected by both the nonzero mass $m_{\gamma}$ and the presence of a plasma…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-04-04 Yu-Bin Wang , Xia Zhou , Abdusattar Kurban , Fa-Yin Wang

The photon mass, $m_\gamma$, can in principle be constrained using measurements of the dispersion measures (DMs) of fast radio bursts (FRBs), once the FRB redshifts are known. The DM of the repeating FRB 121102 is known to $< 1$\%, a host…

We explore the potential of an artificial neural network (ANN) based method intelligence to probe the propagation of cosmic $\gamma$-ray photons in the extragalactic Universe. The journey of $\gamma$-rays emitted from a distant source like…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-09-29 K K Singh , V K Dhar , P J Meintjes

Our understanding of the universe relies mostly on electromagnetism. As photons are the messengers, fundamental physics is concerned in testing their properties. Photon mass upper limits have been earlier set through pulsar observations,…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2016-12-30 Mark J. Bentum , Luca Bonetti , Alessandro D. A. M. Spallicci
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