# References

Limits to Quantum Gravity Effects from   
Observations of TeV Flares in Active Galaxies

S.D. Biller,<sup>1</sup> A.C. Breslin,<sup>2</sup> J. Buckley,<sup>3</sup> M. Catanese,<sup>4</sup> M. Carson,<sup>2</sup> D.A. Carter-Lewis,<sup>4</sup> M.F. Cawley,<sup>5</sup> D.J. Fegan,<sup>2</sup> J. Finley,<sup>6</sup> J.A. Gaidos,<sup>6</sup> A.M. Hillas,<sup>7</sup> F. Krennrich,<sup>4</sup> R.C. Lamb,<sup>8</sup> R. Lessard,<sup>6</sup> C. Masterson,<sup>2</sup> J.E. McEnery,<sup>9</sup> B. McKernan,<sup>2</sup> P. Moriarty,<sup>10</sup> J. Quinn,<sup>11</sup> H.J. Rose,<sup>7</sup> F. Samuelson,<sup>4</sup> G. Sembroski,<sup>6</sup> P. Skelton,<sup>7</sup> T.C. Weekes<sup>11</sup>

<sup>1</sup> Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom   
<sup>2</sup> University College, Dublin, Ireland   
<sup>3</sup> Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130   
<sup>4</sup> Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011   
<sup>5</sup> Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland   
<sup>6</sup> Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907   
<sup>7</sup> University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom   
<sup>8</sup> California Institute of Technology, California 91125   
<sup>9</sup> University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112   
<sup>10</sup> Galway-Mayo Instutute of Technology, Galway, Ireland   
<sup>11</sup> Whipple Observatory, Amado, Arizona 85645   

## Abstract

We have used data from the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray flare associated with the active galaxy Markarian 421 observed on 15 May 1996 to place bounds on the possible energy-dependence of the speed of light in the context of an effective quantum gravitational energy scale. The possibility of an observable time dispersion in high energy radiation has recently received attention in the literature, with some suggestions that the relevant energy scale could be less than the Planck mass and perhaps as low as $`10^{16}`$GeV. The limits derived here indicate this energy scale to be in excess of $`4\times 10^{16}`$GeV at the 95% confidence level. To the best of our knowledge, this constitutes the first convincing limit on such phenomena in this energy regime.

Submitted to Physical Review Letters

It has recently been pointed out that many quantum gravity scenarios may result in an observable time dispersion for high energy radiation originating at large distances from the Earth   . This would result from an effective energy-dependence to the velocity of light in vaccum owing to propagation through a gravitational medium containing quantum fluctuations on distance scales near the Planck length, $`L_P10^{33}`$cm, with timescales on the order of $`1/E_P`$, where $`E_P`$ is the Planck Mass ($`10^{19}`$GeV). In particular, it has been indicated  that different approaches to quantum gravity lead to a similar description of the first-order effects of such a time dispersion:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t\xi \frac{E}{E_{QG}}\frac{L}{c}$$
(1)   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the time delay relative to the standard energy-independent speed of light, $`c`$; $`\xi `$ is a model-dependent factor of order 1; $`E`$ is the energy of the observed radiation; $`E_{QG}`$ is the assumed energy scale for quantum gravitational effects which can couple to electromagnetic radiation; and $`L`$ is the distance over which the radiation has propagated. While $`E_{QG}`$ is generally assumed to be on the order of $`E_P`$, recent work within the context of string theory suggests that the onset of noticeable quantum gravitational effects may correspond to a characteristic energy scale smaller than the Planck mass and perhaps as low as $`10^{16}`$GeV . Thus, any experimental probe of such scales or higher would be of great interest.

In a recent paper  it was suggested that $`\gamma `$-ray bursts (GRBs) could provide a natural way to test such predictions owing to the short duration, high energies and the apparent cosmological origin of at least some of these bursts. Based on current data, these authors indicate that if 1) time structure on the scale of 0.01 seconds or smaller can be established for energies $`200`$keV and 2) an association of such a burst can be made with an object possessing a redshift of order 1, energy scales of $`E_{QG}10^{16}`$GeV could be probed. Unfortunately, establishing the distance of any particular GRB from earth has proven to be non-trivial, with only a handful positively associated with optical counterparts. Also, some of the highest energies seen from GRBs are associated with an “afterglow” which seems to occur over much longer timescales than the initial burst. However, more stringent and robust limits to $`E_{QG}`$ can already be set based instead on the rapidly rising TeV flares seen to occur in active galaxies.

The Whipple Observatory $`\gamma `$-ray telescope, located in Arizona, detects the Čerenkov light generated by electromagnetic cascades resulting from the interaction of high-energy $`\gamma `$-rays in the atmosphere. Images taken of such cascades are used to discriminate backgrounds and derive energies of the primary $`\gamma `$-rays in the regime above $``$250 GeV. To date, three extragalactic sources, all active galaxies of the blazar class, have been identified as emitters of TeV radiation   . Two of these, Markarian 421 and Markarian 501, produce particularly strong emission with energy spectra approximated by an $`E^{2.5}`$ power law (although Markarian 501 shows evidence for additional curvature) between energies of 300 GeV and 10 TeV . These same sources have also exhibited dramatic changes in flux level on timescales ranging from minutes to days. On several occasions, such variations have been simultaneously studied and correlated with x-ray, UV and optical measurements  .

The most rapid flare observed thus far was seen from Markarian 421 on 15 May 1996 . This data is shown in figure 1, where the excess rate of $`\gamma `$-ray selected events above a threshold of 350 GeV is binned in intervals of 280 seconds duration, as it appeared in the original publication of this observation. To avoid confusion (and potential bias), we will retain this same binning for the current analysis. The doubling time of the flare is less than 15 minutes, although variability is apparent on the scale of the binning at the 99% confidence level. Because of the rapidly falling energy spectrum, the $`\gamma `$-ray data is dominated by events near the triggering threshold. Thus, the peak of the flare is almost entirely defined by events with $`\gamma `$-ray energies less than 1 TeV, as shown at the top of figure 2. In the 280 second interval corresponding to this peak, 4 events with $`\gamma `$-ray energies in excess of 2 TeV have been identified, whereas no such events could be identified in either of the 2 adjacent intervals (figure 2, bottom). The probability for this to occur by chance is less than 5%. Hence, at the 95% confidence level, emission above 2 TeV appears to keep in step with emission below 1 TeV for variability timescales less than 280 seconds. The redshift of Markarian 421 is 0.031, which translates to $`1.1\times 10^{16}`$ light-seconds for an assumed Hubble constant of 85 km/s/Mpc. From equation 1, this leads to lower bound on $`E_{QG}`$/$`\xi `$ of $`4\times 10^{16}`$GeV.

We note that an earlier limit on the energy-dependence of the speed of light, which would be more restrictive than that given here, had been derived from the possible ultra-high-energy detection of anomalous pulsed emission from Her X-1 in 1986 . However, more recent analyses and the lack of further such detections suggests that the interpretation of that observation as a statistical fluctuation is not an unreasonable one . We therefore believe that the limit presented in this paper represents the most credible and stringent bound thus far obtained.

The next generation of proposed ground-based instruments, such as VERITAS and HESS, will feature multi-telescope systems with much improved sensitivity, energy coverage and resolution, along with the ability to track candidate sources of flares more continuously using dedicated telescopes. This will allow for both a more detailed study of the time structure of currently known TeV sources and the prospect of discovering and studying more distant objects. It is therefore reasonable to expect to probe $`E_{QG}`$ to even higher energies in the near future from further studies of TeV flares. As has already been pointed out , the distinctive dependence of the shortest observable variability timescale on both energy and source distance for quantum gravitational dispersion should allow source-specific effects to be distinguished. Thus, future TeV studies could conceivably provide convincing evidence for quantum gravity, particularly if the resulting time-dispersion effects are associated with characteristic energy scales less than the Planck mass. We hope that this prospect, in addition to the bounds derived here, will encourage more detailed predictions of such phenomena to be calculated in the context of specific quantum gravity frameworks.

We would like to thank Subir Sarkar at Oxford for several useful discussions on this topic. This work has been supported in part by PPARC, Forbairt, the US Department of Energy, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.