Searching Lorentz invariance violation from cosmic photon attenuation

Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) can change the threshold behavior predicted by special relativity and cause threshold anomalies which affect the propagation of cosmic photons. In this work, we focus on the threshold anomaly effect on cosmic photon attenuations by extragalactic background light (EBL) and discuss how to identify LIV from observations of very high energy (VHE) photons propagated from long distance in the universe. We point out that the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), one of the most sensitive gamma-ray detector arrays currently operating at TeV and PeV energies, is an ideal facility for performing such LIV searching. We apply the proposed strategy to discuss the newly observed gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A to demonstrate the predictive ability of our suggestions.

Automated summary

In this work, the effect of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) on cosmic photon attenuations by extragalactic background light (EBL) is studied, and the identification of LIV from observations of very high energy (VHE) photons propagated from long distance is discussed. It is pointed out that the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) is an ideal facility for performing such LIV searching. The proposed strategy is applied to analyze the newly observed gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A to demonstrate the predictive ability.