Testing the Ampère-Maxwell law on the photon mass and Lorentz-Poincaré symmetry violation with MMS multi-spacecraft data

Abstract

International audienceThe photon is commonly believed being the only free massless particle. Deviations from the Ampère-Maxwell law, due to a photon mass, real for the de Broglie-Proca theory, or effective for the Lorentz-Poincaré Symmetry Violation (LSV) in the Standard-Model Extension (SME) were sought in six years of MMS satellite data. In a minority of cases, out of which $76\%$ in modulus and $65\%$ in Cartesian components for the highest time resolution burst data and best tetrahedron configurations in the solar wind and peripheries, deviations have been found. After currents error analysis, the minimal photon mass would be $1.74 \times 10^{-53}$ kg while the minimal LSV parameter $|\vec{k}^{\rm AF}|$ value would be $4.95 \times 10^{-11}$ m$^{-1}$. These values are compared with actual limits and discussed