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γ-ray polarization constraints on Planck scale violations of special relativity

Ubertini, Pietro; Celotti, Annalisa; Maccione, Luca +2 more

Using recent polarimetric observations of the Crab Nebula in the hard X-ray band by INTEGRAL, we show that the absence of vacuum birefringence effects constrains O(E/M) Lorentz violation in QED to the level |ξ|<9×10^-10 at 3σ CL, tightening by more than 3 orders of magnitude previous constraints. We show that planned X-ray polarimeter…