Modified dispersion relations and a potential explanation of the EDGES anomaly

Saurya Das; Mitja Fridman; Gaetano Lambiase; Antonio Stabile; Elias C. Vagenas

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10680-8

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

This article has an erratum: [https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10756-5]

Eur. Phys. J. C (2022) 82: 720
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10680-8

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Modified dispersion relations and a potential explanation of the EDGES anomaly

Saurya Das¹, Mitja Fridman¹^b, Gaetano Lambiase²^,3, Antonio Stabile²^,3 and Elias C. Vagenas⁴

¹ Theoretical Physics Group and Quantum Alberta, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, T1K 3M4, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
² Dipartimento di Fisica E.R: Caianiello, Universita di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, Fisciano, 84084, Salerno, Italy
³ INFN-Gruppo Collegato di Salerno, Salerno, Italy
⁴ Theoretical Physics Group, Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, 13060, Safat, Kuwait

^b fridmanm@uleth.ca

Received: 2 March 2022
Accepted: 6 August 2022
Published online: 18 August 2022

Abstract

The Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionisation Signature (EDGES) collaboration has recently reported an important result related to the absorption signal in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation spectrum. This signal corresponds to the red-shifted 21-cm line at $z ≃ 17.2$ $z \simeq 17.2$ , whose amplitude is about twice the expected value. This represents a deviation of approximately $3.8 σ$ $3.8\sigma$ from the predictions of the standard model of cosmology, i.e. the $Λ$ $\Lambda$ CDM model. This opens a window for testing new physics beyond both the standard model of particle physics and the $Λ$ $\Lambda$ CDM model. In this work, we explore the possibility of explaining the EDGES anomaly in terms of modified dispersion relations. The latter are typically induced in unified theories and theories of quantum gravity, such as String/M-theories and Loop Quantum Gravity. These modified dispersion relations affect the density of states per unit volume and thus the thermal spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background photons. The temperature of the 21-cm brightness temperature is modified accordingly giving a potential explanation of the EDGES anomaly.

The original online version of this article was revised: The captions to figures 1-5 as well as the figure references on page 4 were inadvertently swapped. The original article has been corrected.

An erratum to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10756-5.

Copyright comment corrected publication 2022

Erratum to this article: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10756-5

© The Author(s) 2022. corrected publication 2022

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