Stringent Tests of Lorentz Invariance Violation from LHAASO Observations of GRB 221009A
Zhen Cao, F Aharonian, M Axikegu, Y. X. Bai, Y. W. Bao, D. Bastieri, Xiao-Jun Bi, Yu Bi, W Bian, A.V Bukevich, Qing Cao, Weiling Cao, Zhe Cao, Jin Chang, J. F. Chang, A.M Chen, E.S Chen, Hua-Xing Chen, Liang Chen, Lin Chen, Long Chen, M.J Chen, M.L Chen, Qin Chen, S. J. Chen, Shaw H. Chen, S. Z. Chen, T. L. Chen, Yu Chen, Ning Cheng, Y.D Cheng, Maxwell Cui, S. W. Cui, X.H Cui, Y. D. Cui, B. Z. Dai, H. L. Dai, Zi-Gao Dai, M Danzengluobu, X.Q Dong, K. K. Duan, Junhui Fan, Yi-Zhong Fan, J.-M. Fang, J. Fang, Kai Fang, C.F Feng, Hao Feng, Feng Ling, S. H. Feng, X.T Feng, Yi Feng, Y. L. Feng, S. Gabici, B. S. Gao, Chuyue Gao, Q. Gao, Weibo Gao, Wei Gao, M. M. Ge, Li‐Sheng Geng, Gwenael Giacinti, G. Gong, Q. B. Gou, M. H. Gu, Fulai Guo, Xu Guo, Y. Q. Guo, Yong Guo, Y. A. Han, M Hasan, H. H. He, Huan He, Jiangbiao He, Y. He, Y. K. Hor, Bowen Hou, Chao Hou, Xingsong Hou, H. B. Hu, Qin Hu, S. C. Hu, D.H Huang, Tengfei Huang, Weidong Huang, X. T. Huang, X.Y Huang, Yufei Huang, X. L. Ji, H. Y. Jia, Ke Jia, K. Jiang, Xiaojun Jiang, Z.J Jiang, Min Jin, M. M. Kang, I. Karpikov, D. Kuleshov, K. Kurinov, B.B Li
Abstract
On 9 October 2022, the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) reported the observation of the very early TeV afterglow of the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst 221009A, recording the highest photon statistics in the TeV band ever obtained from a gamma-ray burst. We use this unique observation to place stringent constraints on the energy dependence of the speed of light in vacuum, a manifestation of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) predicted by some quantum gravity (QG) theories. Our results show that the 95% confidence level lower limits on the QG energy scales are E_{QG,1}>10 times the Planck energy E_{Pl} for the linear LIV effect, and E_{QG,2}>6×10^{-8}E_{Pl} for the quadratic LIV effect. Our limits on the quadratic LIV case improve previous best bounds by factors of 5-7.