Thursday, April 11, 2013

1304.2821 (Julian Heeck)

How stable is the photon?    [PDF]

Julian Heeck
Yes, the photon. While a nonzero photon mass has been under experimental and theoretical study for years, the possible implication of a finite photon lifetime lacks discussion. The tight experimental upper bound of the photon mass restricts the kinematically allowed final states of photon decay to the lightest neutrino and/or particles beyond the Standard Model. We discuss the modifications of the well-measured cosmic microwave background spectrum of free streaming photons due to photon mass and lifetime and obtain model-independent constraints on both parameters---most importantly a lower direct bound of 3 yrs on the photon lifetime, should the photon mass be at its conservative upper limit.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.2821

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