https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05026-0
Regular Article
Utilizing blackbody radiation inversion to attain an upper bound on the mass of photon using cosmic microwave background radiation
Department of Physics, Birla Institute of Technology, 835215, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Received:
16
November
2023
Accepted:
20
February
2024
Published online:
5
March
2024
The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation has shed light on various aspects of the universe unknown to us. In this research, we utilize the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the COBE/FIRAS mission, to put bounds on the mass of the photon. The base of the work emerges from a modified Planck equation taking into consideration the dispersion relation due to the nonzero rest mass of the photon and the expansion of the universe. Based on the mathematical problem of blackbody radiation inversion, we obtain an estimation of the mass the photon can have. The technique of blackbody radiation inversion infers about the mass distribution by inverting the radiation field of the microwave background. The estimated mass by employing this process was found to be 
kg 
eV, while the uncertainty in our statistical calculation leads to an uncertainty of 
kg 
eV. Comparison of results obtained are made with other published results. Inferences regarding further investigations are presented.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
