Searching for Lorentz-violating Signatures from Astrophysical Photon Observations

Abstract

As a basic symmetry of Einstein's theory of special relativity, Lorentz invariance has withstood very strict tests. But there are still motivations for such tests. Firstly, many theories of quantum gravity suggest violations of Lorentz invariance at the Planck energy scale. Secondly, even minute deviations from Lorentz symmetry can accumulate as particle travel across large distances, leading to detectable effects at attainable energies. Thanks to their long baselines and high-energy emission, astrophysical observations provide sensitive tests of Lorentz invariance in the photon sector. In this paper, I briefly introduce astrophysical methods that we adopted to search for Lorentz-violating signatures, including vacuum dispersion and vacuum birefringence.