On testing in-vacuo dispersion with the most energetic neutrinos: KM3-230213A case study

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni, D'Amico, Giacomo, Fabiano, Giuseppe, Frattulillo, Domenico, Gubitosi, Giulia, Moia, Alessandro, Rosati, Giacomo
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866913977485754368
author Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni
D'Amico, Giacomo
Fabiano, Giuseppe
Frattulillo, Domenico
Gubitosi, Giulia
Moia, Alessandro
Rosati, Giacomo
author_facet Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni
D'Amico, Giacomo
Fabiano, Giuseppe
Frattulillo, Domenico
Gubitosi, Giulia
Moia, Alessandro
Rosati, Giacomo
contents The phenomenology of in-vacuo dispersion, an effect such that quantum properties of spacetime slow down particles proportionally to their energies, has been a very active research area since the advent of the Fermi telescope. One of the assumptions made in this 15-year effort is that the phenomenology of in-vacuo dispersion has a particle-energy sweet spot: the energy of the particle should be large enough to render the analysis immune to source-intrinsic confounding effects but still small enough to facilitate the identification of the source of the particle. We use the gigantic energy of KM3-230213A as an opportunity to challenge this expectation. For a neutrino of a few hundred PeVs a transient source could have been observed at lower energies several years earlier, even assuming the characteristic scale of in-vacuo dispersion to be close to the Planck scale. We report that GRB090401B is in excellent directional agreement with KM3-230213A, and we discuss a strategy of in-vacuo-dispersion analysis suitable for estimating the significance of KM3-230213A as a GRB090401B-neutrino candidate. The $p$-value resulting from our analysis (0.015) is not small enough to warrant any excitement, but small enough to establish the point that a handful of such coincidences would be sufficient to meaningfully test in-vacuo dispersion.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_13093
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On testing in-vacuo dispersion with the most energetic neutrinos: KM3-230213A case study
Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni
D'Amico, Giacomo
Fabiano, Giuseppe
Frattulillo, Domenico
Gubitosi, Giulia
Moia, Alessandro
Rosati, Giacomo
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
The phenomenology of in-vacuo dispersion, an effect such that quantum properties of spacetime slow down particles proportionally to their energies, has been a very active research area since the advent of the Fermi telescope. One of the assumptions made in this 15-year effort is that the phenomenology of in-vacuo dispersion has a particle-energy sweet spot: the energy of the particle should be large enough to render the analysis immune to source-intrinsic confounding effects but still small enough to facilitate the identification of the source of the particle. We use the gigantic energy of KM3-230213A as an opportunity to challenge this expectation. For a neutrino of a few hundred PeVs a transient source could have been observed at lower energies several years earlier, even assuming the characteristic scale of in-vacuo dispersion to be close to the Planck scale. We report that GRB090401B is in excellent directional agreement with KM3-230213A, and we discuss a strategy of in-vacuo-dispersion analysis suitable for estimating the significance of KM3-230213A as a GRB090401B-neutrino candidate. The $p$-value resulting from our analysis (0.015) is not small enough to warrant any excitement, but small enough to establish the point that a handful of such coincidences would be sufficient to meaningfully test in-vacuo dispersion.
title On testing in-vacuo dispersion with the most energetic neutrinos: KM3-230213A case study
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.13093