Testing Lorentz invariance of electrons with LHAASO observations of PeV gamma-rays from the Crab Nebula

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) recently reported the detection of gamma-ray emissions with energies up to 1.1 PeV from the Crab Nebula. Using the absence of vacuum Cherenkov effect by inverse-Compton electrons, we improve previous bounds to linear-order Lorentz invariance violation (LV) in the dispersion relations of electrons by 10(4) times. We show that the LV effect on electrons is severely constrained, compatible with certain type of LV as expected by some models of quantum gravity (QG), such as the string/D-brane inspired space-time foam. We argue that such models are supported by the Crab Nebula constraints from the LHAASO observations, as well as various LV phenomenologies for photons to date. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) recently reported the detection of gamma-ray emissions with energies up to 1.1 PeV from the Crab Nebula. By studying the absence of vacuum Cherenkov effect, the researchers have improved the constraints on linear-order Lorentz invariance violation in the dispersion relations of electrons. The results show that the Lorentz invariance violation on electrons is severely constrained and compatible with certain models of quantum gravity.