Michele Ronco (Roma 1) : Quantum spacetime imprints in gamma-ray propagation

lundi 15 oct. 2018, 14:00 → 16:00 Europe/Paris

Lorentz symmetries are among the pillars of our theories, and yet independent approaches aiming at combining general relativistic with quantum effects almost unavoidably imply departures from them. We shall discuss the most-used framework to implement modifications of the dispersion relation, its drawbacks, and possible improvements. Observationally, particles having different energies emitted at the same time from a given source should be detected at different times from a far-away detector, thereby producing a phenomenon of in-vacuo dispersion with a correlation between the time of observation and particles’ energy. After a brief review on current astrophysical bounds, a statistical analysis over collections of gamma-ray bursts is presented. Remarkably, there is some evidence of in-vacuo-dispersion-like spectral lags. Further studies to investigate this intriguing feature are suggested.

LPNHE_Ronco_v2.pdf