Monday, August 13, 2012

1208.2033 (A. Nepomuk Otte)

Prospects of performing Lorentz invariance tests with VHE emission from pulsars    [PDF]

A. Nepomuk Otte
Gamma-ray observations provide sensitive tests of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). At present the most sensitive tests come from observations of transient events, gamma-ray bursts and flaring AGN. Disadvantages of transients are that an independent confirmation by a different experiment is often not possible and that limits cannot be improved with a longer exposure. Pulsars do not have these disadvantages. Testing Lorentz invariance with pulsars was not considered seriously so far because limits were not competitive. The VERITAS collaboration has recently reported the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar above 100 GeV. This measurement can be used to constrain LIV effects with a sensitivity that is competitive with some of the best available limits. In view of this unexpected result we discuss what the prospects are of doing LIV tests with very-high energy gamma-ray emission from pulsars.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.2033

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