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arXiv 2103.15299astro-ph.HEhep-ph
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用快速射电暴的宇宙学传播来界定光子质量

Bounding the photon mass with cosmological propagation of fast radio bursts

Huimei Wang, Xueli Miao, Lijing Shao

摘要:

光子是电磁场的基本量子,在麦克斯韦理论中,光子的质量$m_γ$应严格为零。但并不是所有的理论都采用这种假设。如果光子的静止质量不为零,那么不同频率的光子在经过一段固定的距离后,它们之间会有一个额外的时间延迟。通过对时间延迟的分析,可以测量或约束光子质量。快速射电暴(FRB)--以毫秒级持续时间和宇宙学传播为特征的瞬态射电暴--是约束$m_γ$的极好的天体物理实验室。在这项工作中,我们使用的贝叶斯框架约束$m_γ$的129个FRB的目录。结果,我们得到了一个新的光子质量的限制,$m_γ \leq 3.1\times 10^{-51}\rm\,kg\simeq 1.7 \times 10^{-15}\,eV/c^2$($m_γ \leq 3.9\times 10^{-51}\rm\,kg \simeq 2.2 \times 10^{-15}\,eV/c^2$)在$68\%$ $(95\%$)的置信水平。该结果代表了纯粹从光传播的运动学分析的最佳极限。在不久的将来,随着FRB数目的增加,对FRB红移的更精确测量,以及对色散测度(DM)起源的认识的完善,光子质量的约束将变得更紧。

英文摘要:

Photon is the fundamental quantum of electromagnetic fields, whose mass, $m_γ$, should be strictly zero in Maxwell's theory. But not all theories adopt this hypothesis. If the rest mass of the photon is not zero, there will be an additional time delay between photons of different frequencies after they travel through a fixed distance. By analyzing the time delay, we can measure or constrain the photon mass. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) -- transient radio bursts characterized by millisecond duration and cosmological propagation -- are excellent astrophysical laboratories to constrain $m_γ$. In this work we use a catalog of 129 FRBs in a Bayesian framework to constrain $m_γ$. As a result, we obtain a new bound on the photon mass, $m_γ \leq 3.1\times 10^{-51}\rm\,kg\simeq 1.7 \times 10^{-15}\,eV/c^2$ ($m_γ \leq 3.9\times 10^{-51}\rm\,kg \simeq 2.2 \times 10^{-15}\,eV/c^2$) at the $68\%$ $(95\%$) confidence level. The result represents the best limit purely from kinematic analysis of light propagation. The bound on the photon mass will be tighter in the near future with increment in the number of FRBs, more accurate measurement of the redshift for FRBs, and refinement in the knowledge about the origin of dispersion measures (DMs).

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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