The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 33 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
A strong astrophysical constraint on the violation of special relativity by quantum gravity
Open accessAbstract
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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Cites
(2020) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctv131bv37.5 · Cited by 22,595
Tsang, T. (1998) · WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · doi:10.1142/3388 · Cited by 2,708
Tests of quantum gravity from observations of γ-ray bursts
Amelino-Camelia, G., Ellis, J., Mavromatos, N. E., Nanopoulos, D. V., & Sarkar, S. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/31647 · Cited by 1,430
High-energy tests of Lorentz invariance
Coleman, S., & Glashow, S. L. (1999) · Physical Review D · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.116008 · Cited by 1,149 · cited 2×
“Complementary constraints were recently achieved by considering the threshold reactions of photon decay, vacuum Čerenkov radiation, and photon absorption involving high energy photons and electrons [13, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20].”
BackgroundNoncommutative Field Theory and Lorentz Violation
Carroll, S. M., Harvey, J. A., Kostelecký, V. A., Lane, C. D., & Okamoto, T. (2001) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.141601 · Cited by 983
Nonstandard optics from quantum space-time
Gambini, R., & Pullin, J. (1999) · Physical Review D · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.124021 · Cited by 960 · cited 1×
“Several approaches to quantum gravity, however, suggest that there may be a Lorentz violating microscopic structure of spacetime, for example discreteness [1], non-commutativity [2], or extra dimensions [3].”
BackgroundPotential Sensitivity of Gamma-Ray Burster Observations to Wave Dispersion in VacuoPreprint
Giovanni Amelino-camelia, A., Ellis, J. R., Mavromatos, N. E., Nanopoulos, D. V., & Sarkar, S. (1997) · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9712103 · Cited by 766
Ultraviolet Modifications of Dispersion Relations in Effective Field Theory
Myers, R. C., & Pospelov, M. (2003) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.211601 · Cited by 499
On the mechanisms of gamma radiation in the Crab Nebula
Atoyan, A. M., & Aharonian, F. (1996) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/278.2.525 · Cited by 309
Gamma-Ray Observations of the Crab Nebula: A Study of the Synchro-Compton Spectrum
de Jager, O. C., Harding, A. K., Michelson, P. F., Nel, H. I., Nolan, P. L., Sreekumar, P. G., & Thompson, D. J. (1996) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/176726 · Cited by 281
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Sorted by citations
Barceló, C., Liberati, S., & Visser, M. (2005) · Living Reviews in Relativity · doi:10.12942/lrr-2005-12 · Cited by 1,163
Self-citationModern Tests of Lorentz Invariance
Mattingly, D. (2005) · Living Reviews in Relativity · doi:10.12942/lrr-2005-5 · Cited by 1,061
Self-citationQuantum-Spacetime Phenomenology
Giovanni Amelino-camelia, A. (2013) · Living Reviews in Relativity · doi:10.12942/lrr-2013-5 · Cited by 886
Barceló, C., Liberati, S., & Visser, M. (2011) · Living Reviews in Relativity · doi:10.12942/lrr-2011-3 · Cited by 598
Self-citationTests of Lorentz invariance: a 2013 update
Liberati, S. (2013) · Classical and Quantum Gravity · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/30/13/133001 · Cited by 492
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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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