First combined studies on Lorentz Invariance Violation from observations of astrophysical sources

Understand

Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes study the highest energy (up to tens of TeV) photon emission coming from nearby and distant astrophysical sources, thus providing valuable results from searches for Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) effects.

• Highly variable, energetic and distant sources such as Pulsars and AGNs are the best targets for the Time-of-Flight LIV studies.
• However, the limited number of observations of AGN flares or of high-energy pulsed emission greatly restricts the potential of such studies, especially any potential LIV effects as a function of redshift.
• To address these issues, an inter-experiment working group has been established by the three major collaborations taking data with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS) with the aim to increase sensitivity to any effects of LIV, together with an improved control of systematic uncertainties, by sharing data samples and developing joint analysis methods.