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Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4964 - 4966 (1999)

Severe Limits on Variations of the Speed of Light with Frequency

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Bradley E. Schaefer *
Physics Department, Yale University, P.O. Box 208121, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8121

Featured in Physics News Update Received 29 October 1998

Explosive astrophysical events at high redshift can be used to place severe limits on the fractional variation in the speed of light with frequency ( Δc/c), the photon mass ( mγ), and the energy scale of quantum gravity ( EQG). I find Δc/c<6.3×10-21 based on the simultaneous arrival of a flare in GRB 930229 with a rise time of 220±30 μs for photons of 30 and 200 keV. The limit on mγ is 4.2×10-44 g for GRB 980703 from radio to gamma ray observations. The limit on EQG is 8.3×1016 GeV for GRB 930131 from 30 keV to 80 MeV photons.


©1999 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.4964
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.4964
PACS: 98.70.Rz, 03.30.+p, 04.60.-m, 14.70.Bh

* Electronic address: schaefer@grb2.physics.yale.edu

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