A new method to study energy-dependent arrival delays on photons from astrophysical sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust likelihood-based method to analyze energy-dependent photon arrival delays from astrophysical sources, addressing previous limitations and demonstrated on real and simulated data.

Contribution

A novel likelihood method for studying photon arrival delays that improves upon previous techniques and is applicable to complex datasets.

Findings

Successfully applied to MAGIC telescope data of Markarian 501

Validated with simulated PKS 2155-304 flare data

Demonstrates robustness in complex photon arrival scenarios

Abstract

Correlations between the arrival time and the energy of photons emitted in outbursts of astrophysical objects are predicted in quantum and classical gravity scenarios and can appear as well as a result of complex acceleration mechanisms responsible for the photon emission at the source. This paper presents a robust method to study such correlations that overcomes some limitations encountered in previous analysis, and is based on a Likelihood function built from the physical picture assumed for the emission, propagation and detection of the photons. The results of the application of this method to a flare of Markarian 501 observed by the MAGIC telescope are presented. The method is also applied to a simulated dataset based on the flare of PKS 2155-304 recorded by the H.E.S.S. observatory to proof its applicability to complex photon arrival time distributions.