Testing Lorentz Invariance Violation with WMAP Five Year Data

TL;DR

This paper uses WMAP five-year data to set new, stronger limits on Lorentz invariance violation by analyzing cosmic microwave background photon birefringence, translating observational data into constraints on fundamental physics.

Contribution

It introduces a method to derive tighter bounds on Lorentz symmetry violation from cosmic microwave background polarization data.

Findings

Limits on Lorentz violation are stronger than previous bounds.

Constraints are expressed in terms of birefringent effective photon mass.

Results imply no detectable Lorentz violation within current observational sensitivity.

Abstract

We consider different renormalizable models of Lorentz invariance violation. We show that the limits on birefringence of the propagation of cosmic microwave background photons from the five year data of the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) can be translated into a limit of Lorentz symmetry violation. The obtained limits on Lorentz invariance violation are stronger than other published limits. We also cast them in terms of limits on a birefringent effective photo "mass" and on a polarization dependence of the speed of light.