Bound on the Photon Charge from the Phase Coherence of Extragalactic Radiation

Abstract

If the photon possessed a nonzero charge, then electromagnetic waves traveling along different paths would acquire Aharonov-Bohm phase differences. The fact that such an effect has not hindered interferometric astronomy places a bound on the photon charge estimated to be at the 10^(-32) e level if all photons have the same charge and 10^(-46) e if different photons can carry different charges.

Comments: 8 pages, new bound added, version appearing in Phys. Rev. Lett