The potential of the HAWC Observatory to observe violations of Lorentz Invariance

TL;DR

This paper explores how the HAWC Observatory can detect potential violations of Lorentz Invariance through high-energy gamma-ray observations, especially from gamma-ray bursts, to test fundamental physics at cosmological scales.

Contribution

It assesses HAWC's capability to observe Lorentz Invariance Violations and compares its sensitivity with existing experimental limits.

Findings

HAWC can detect Lorentz Invariance Violations at unprecedented sensitivity levels.

Gamma-ray bursts provide a promising avenue for testing Lorentz Invariance at high energies.

The study contextualizes HAWC's potential within current experimental constraints.

Abstract

The framework of relativistic quantum-field theories requires Lorentz Invariance. Many theories of quantum gravity, on the other hand, include violations of Lorentz Invariance at small scales and high energies. This generates a lot of interest in establishing limits on such effects, and, if possible, observing them directly. Gamma-ray observatories provide a tool to probe parts of the parameter space of models of Lorentz Invariance Violation that is not accessible in terrestrial laboratories and man-made accelerators. Transients, especially gamma-ray bursts, are a particularly promising class of events to search for such phenomena. By combining cosmological distances with high energy emission and short duration, emitting photons up to 30 GeV in less than a second, one can measure the energy dependence of the speed of photons to one part in $10^{16}$. We will discuss the potential of HAWC to detect effects of the violation of Lorentz Invariance and place its sensitivity in the context of existing limits.