Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation using the extraordinary flare of Mrk 421 in 2014

An extraordinary flare from blazar Mrk 421 was recorded on the night of April 24, 2014, by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes at very high energy (VHE) from 100 GeV up to 10 TeV. Several quantum-gravity models indicate that the photon group velocity in vacuum may be energy dependent, known as in-vacuum dispersion. Violation of Lorentz Invariance (LIV) of this kind can lead to an observable effect on the time of flight of VHE photons from cosmic origin. Observations of fast and distant phenomena, such as the flare from Mrk 421, are excellent testing grounds for this hypothesis. Using an innovative binned likelihood analysis, for the first time from this source we were able to search for arrival-time delays scaling linearly or quadratically with the energy of the photon. The non-detection of energy-dependent time delays led us to set constraints on the parameter space of quantum-gravity predictions.

violation: Lorentz
invariance: Lorentz
scaling: linear
photon: energy
velocity: group
quantum gravity: model
VHE
energy dependence
MAGIC
GeV

References(31)

Figures(0)

[1]

The 2014 TeV $\gamma$ -Ray Flare of Mrk 501 Seen with H.E.S.S.: Temporal and Spectral Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation

H.E.S.S.

Collaboration

•

H. Abdalla
(
- Potchefstroom U.
)

et al.

- Astrophys.J. 870 (2019) 2, 93
•
e-Print:
- 1901.05209
•
DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/aaf1c4

[2]

de Miranda Cardoso, C. Deil, A. Donath, L. Giunti, J. Hinton, L. Jouvin, B. Khélifi, J. King, J. Lefaucheur, J.-P. Lenain, M. Linhoff, R. López-Coto, L. Mohrmann, D. Morcuende, K. Nakashima, C. Nigro, L. Olivera-Nieto, E. Owen, S. Panny, D

F. Acero
,
A. Aguasca-Cabot
,
J. Buchner
,
D. Carreto Fidalgo
,
A. Chen

et al.

[3]

The major upgrade of the MAGIC telescopes, Part I: The hardware improvements and the commissioning of the system

J. Aleksić
(
- Barcelona, IFAE
)
,
L.A. Antonelli
(
- INAF, Rome
)
,
P. Antoranz
(
- INFN, Pisa and
- Siena U.
)
,
A. Babic
(
- Boskovic Inst., Zagreb
)
,
P. Bangale
(
- Munich, Max Planck Inst.
)

et al.

- Astropart.Phys. 72 (2016) 61-75
•
e-Print:
- 1409.6073
•
DOI:
- 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2015.04.004

[4]

The major upgrade of the MAGIC telescopes, Part II: A performance study using observations of the Crab Nebula

MAGIC

Collaboration

•

J. Aleksić
(
- Barcelona, IFAE
)

et al.

- Astropart.Phys. 72 (2016) 76-94
•
e-Print:
- 1409.5594
•
DOI:
- 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2015.02.005

[5]

Doubly-Special Relativity: Facts, Myths and Some Key Open Issues, pages 123-170

G. Amelino-Camelia

[6]

Relativity in space-times with short distance structure governed by an observer independent (Planckian) length scale

Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
(
- Rome U.
)

- Int.J.Mod.Phys.D 11 (2002) 35-60
•
e-Print:
- gr-qc/0012051
•
DOI:
- 10.1142/S0218271802001330

[7]

Tests of quantum gravity from observations of gamma-ray bursts

G. Amelino-Camelia
(
- Oxford U. and
- Neuchatel U.
)
,
John R. Ellis
(
- CERN
)
,
N.E. Mavromatos
(
- Oxford U.
)
,
Dimitri V. Nanopoulos
(
- Athens U. and
- Texas A-M and
- HARC, Woodlands
)
,
Subir Sarkar
(
- Oxford U.
)

- Nature 393 (1998) 763-765
•
e-Print:
- astro-ph/9712103
•
DOI:
- 10.1038/31647

[8]

Loop generated bounds on changes to the graviton dispersion relation

- JHEP 03 (2002) 043
•
e-Print:
- hep-ph/0201082
•
DOI:
- 10.1088/1126-6708/2002/03/043

[9]

Noncommutative field theory and Lorentz violation

Sean M. Carroll
(
- Chicago U., EFI
)
,
Jeffrey A. Harvey
(
- Chicago U., EFI
)
,
V.Alan Kostelecky
(
- Indiana U.
)
,
Charles D. Lane
(
- Colby Coll.
)
,
Takemi Okamoto
(
- Chicago U., EFI
)

- Phys.Rev.Lett. 87 (2001) 141601
•
e-Print:
- hep-th/0105082
•
DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.141601

[10]

Gammapy - A prototype for the CTA science tools. In 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC), volume 301 of International Cosmic Ray Conference, page 766, Jan

C. Deil
,
R. Zanin
,
J. Lefaucheur
,
C. Boisson
,
B. Khelifi

et al.

[11]

Astrophysical probes of the constancy of the velocity of light

John R. Ellis
(
- CERN
)
,
K. Farakos
(
- Natl. Tech. U., Athens
)
,
N.E. Mavromatos
(
- Oxford U. and
- CERN
)
,
Vasiliki A. Mitsou
(
- CERN and
- Athens U.
)
,
Dimitri V. Nanopoulos
(
- Texas A-M and
- HARC, Woodlands and
- Athens Academy
)

- Astrophys.J. 535 (2000) 139-151
•
e-Print:
- astro-ph/9907340
•
DOI:
- 10.1086/308825

[12]

Quantum-gravity analysis of gamma-ray bursts using wavelets

John R. Ellis
(
- CERN
)
,
N.E. Mavromatos
(
- King's Coll. London
)
,
Dimitri V. Nanopoulos
(
- Texas A-M and
- HARC, Woodlands and
- Athens Academy
)
,
Alexander S. Sakharov
(
- CERN and
- Zurich, ETH
)

- Astron.Astrophys. 402 (2003) 409-424
•
e-Print:
- astro-ph/0210124
•
DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361:20030263

[13]

The necessity of quantizing the gravitational field

Kenneth Eppley
(
- Princeton U.
)
,
Eric Hannah
(
- Princeton U.
)

- Found.Phys. 7 (1977) 1, 51-68
•
DOI:
- 10.1007/BF00715241

[14]

New methods of atmospheric Cherenkov imaging for gamma-ray astronomy. 1: The False source method

V.P. Fomin
(
- Crimean Astrophys. Observ.
)
,
A.A. Stepanian
(
- Crimean Astrophys. Observ.
)
,
R.C. Lamb
(
- Iowa State U.
)
,
D.A. Lewis
(
- Iowa State U.
)
,
M. Punch
(
- Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. Astrophys.
)

et al.

- Astropart.Phys. 2 (1994) 137-150
•
DOI:
- 10.1016/0927-6505(94)90036-1

[15]

Atmospheric monitoring in MAGIC and data corrections. In European Physical Journal Web of Conferences, volume 89 of European Physical Journal Web of Conferences, page 02003, Mar