https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.101703">
 

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It is an empirical question whether photons always obey Bose-Einstein statistics, but devising and interpreting experimental tests of photon statistics can be a challenge. The nonrelativistic cross section for Compton scattering illustrates how a small admixture ν of wrong-sign statistics leads to a loss of gauge invariance; there is a large anomalous amplitude for scattering timelike photons. Nevertheless, one can interpret the observed transparency of the solar wind plasma at low frequencies as a bound ν<10−25 if Lorentz symmetry is required. If there is instead a universal preferred frame, the bound is ν<10−14, still strong compared with previous results.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.101703

Rights

© 2010 The American Physical Society

APA Citation

Altschul, B. (2010). Testing photons’ Bose-Einstein statistics with Compton scattering. Physical Review D, 82(10). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.82.101703

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