Extended Theories of Electro-Magnetism: phenomenology, cosmology and tests

by Alessandro D.A.M. Spallicci

Wednesday 12 Mar 2025, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Rome

Room 281

We face the dichotomy of an ad hoc dark Universe compatible with General Relativity (GR) but lacking experimental confirmation and unsupported by the Standard Model (SM), while we witness the continuous successes of GR. The latter do not scare a multitude of rightly efforts in reformulating gravitation beyond issues as strong fields and quantum issues . Among the messengers of the cosmos, despite the detection of neutrinos, cosmic rays and lately gravitational waves, photons remain by large the main carriers of information. We stick reading signals with the Maxwellian theory, although it lacks explaining phenomena as photon-photon interaction. Thus, we analyse signals and see whether Extended Theories of Electro-Magnetism (ETEM) induce a (partial) reinterpretation of the laws in physics, bearing an impact on cosmology. The SM Extension (SME) dresses the photon with an effective mass [1,2], the only free massless particle. Such mass is compatible with the upper limits obtained through Fast Radio Bursts [3-5] and solar wind [6,7], that this collaboration was recognised for by the Particle Data Group. Birefringence, group velocity dispersion, second-order QED are tested or searched ETEM effects in running experiments, e.g., BMV Toulouse, ATLAS CERN, DeLLlight Paris. But other phenomenology can be addressed too. Indeed, all photons either massive – with an effective mass from the SME or ab initio from the de Broglie-Proca theory - or non-linear - from the Born-Infeld, Heisenberg-Euler type of theories - undergo a frequency shift in presence of an electromagnetic and/or Lorenz Symmetry Violation background [8,9]. This possibly small shift, added to the expansion redshift, determines new cosmological scenarios, e.g., without recurring to dark energy [10-12] and possibly to dark matter. Based on earlier work [13-15], we are now geared to study the self-force on a photon, for which the frequency shift would occur due to the interaction of the photon energy with the curvature produced by an electromagnetic field. Testing through (atom) interferometry is of pivotal importance [16]. The upper limit lies at 3 x 10-18 in Δν/ν for an optical length equal to the Earth-Moon distance. The same apparatus could challenge the unfalsifiability at small scale of the expansion, the latter occurring only beyond galaxies. Finally, we implement the Heisenberg principle at cosmological distances. The minimal mass is drawn from the energy-time relation for time equal to the age of the universe. The Hubble tension [17] would be a quantum measurement interpreted as intrinsic limit of the observations [18,19].

References

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[4] Bonetti L., Ellis J., Mavromatos N.E., Sakharov A.S., Sarkisyan-Grinbaum E.K.G., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Phys. Lett. B, 768, 326 (2017)
[5] Bentum M.J., Bonetti L., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Adv. Space Res., 59, 736 (2017)
[6] Retinò A., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Vaivads A., Astropart. Phys., 82, 49 (2016)

[7] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Sarracino G., Randriamboarison O., Helayël-Neto J.A., Dib A., Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 139, 551 (2024)
[8] Helayël-Neto J.A., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Eur. Phys. J. C, 79, 590 (2019)
[9] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Dib A., Helayël-Neto J.A., Phys. Lett. B, 885, 138873 (2024).

[10] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Helayël-Neto J.A., López-Corredoira M., Capozziello S., Eur. Phys. J. C, 81, 4 (2021) [11] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Sarracino G., Capozziello S., Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 137, 253 (2022)
[12] Sarracino G., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Capozziello S., Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 137, 1386 (2022)
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[14] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Ritter P., Aoudia S., Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys., 11, 1450072 (2014)
[15] Ritter P., Aoudia S., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Cordier S., Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys., 13, 1650019 (2016) [16] Abend S. et al., AVS Quantum Sci., 6, 024701 (2024)
[17] Capozziello S., Sarracino G., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Phys. Dark Univ., 40, 101201 (2023)
[18] Capozziello S., Benetti M., Spallicci A.D.A.M., Found. Phys. 50, 893 (2020)
[19] Spallicci A.D.A.M., Benetti M., Capozziello S., Found. Phys. 52, 23 (2022)