In-vacuo-dispersion features for GRB neutrinos and photons

TL;DR

This paper examines potential quantum-gravity-induced in-vacuo dispersion effects observed in GRB neutrinos and photons, suggesting a common underlying mechanism across a wide energy range and analyzing the likelihood of accidental coincidences.

Contribution

It demonstrates that in-vacuo dispersion features for GRB neutrinos and photons are compatible over four orders of magnitude in energy, providing a unified description.

Findings

Features are compatible across 4 orders of magnitude in energy.

Quantitative assessment of the rarity of accidental feature appearances.

Supports the hypothesis of a common quantum-gravity effect across different particles.

Abstract

Over the last 15 years there has been considerable interest in the possibility of quantum-gravity-induced in-vacuo dispersion, the possibility that spacetime itself might behave essentially like a dispersive medium for particle propagation. Two very recent studies have exposed what might be in-vacuo dispersion features for GRB (gamma-ray-burst) neutrinos of energy in the range of 100 TeV and for GRB photons with energy in the range of 10 GeV. We here show that these two features are roughly compatible with a description such that the same effects apply over 4 orders of magnitude in energy. We also characterize quantitatively how rare it would be for such features to arise accidentally, as a result of (still unknown) aspects of the mechanisms producing photons at GRBs or as a result of background neutrinos accidentally fitting the profile of a GRB neutrino affected by in-vacuo dispersion.