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A strong astrophysical constraint on the violation of special relativity by quantum gravity
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Special relativity asserts that physical phenomena appear the same to all unaccelerated observers. This is called Lorentz symmetry and relates long wavelengths to short ones: if the symmetry is exact it implies that space-time must look the same at all length scales. Several approaches to quantum gravity, however, suggest that there may be a microscopic structure of space-time that leads to a violation of Lorentz symmetry. This might arise because of the discreteness or non-commutivity of space-time, or through the action of extra dimensions. Here we determine a very strong constraint on a type of Lorentz violation that produces a maximum electron speed less than the speed of light. We use the observation of 100-MeV synchrotron radiation from the Crab nebula to improve the previous limit by a factor of 40 million, ruling out this type of Lorentz violation, and thereby providing an important constraint on theories of quantum gravity.
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“Jacobson et al. [153] noticed that the synchrotron emission from the Crab nebula (and other astrophysical objects) is very sensitive to n = 3 modified dispersion relations.”
From Modern Tests of Lorentz Invariance (2005) · cites this paper as [153]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Jacobson, T., Liberati, S., & Mattingly, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2003-08
- Volume
- 424
- Issue
- 6952
- Pages
- 1019-1021
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2055012568
- Cited by
- 277
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 17.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion)
- SDL (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Keywords
- Lorentz violation, quantum gravity, special relativity, synchrotron radiation, Crab Nebula, noncommutative spacetime, extra dimensions, astrophysical constraints
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