CPT/Lorentz invariance violation and neutrino oscillation

We analyze the consequences of violation of Lorentz and CPT invariance in the massless neutrino sector by deforming the canonical anti-commutation relations for the fields. We show that, for particular choices of the deformation, oscillation between massless neutrino species takes place when only Lorentz invariance is violated. On the other hand, if both Lorentz and CPT invariances are violated, we show that there is no oscillation between massless neutrino species. Comparing with the existing experimental data on neutrino oscillations, we obtain bounds on the parameter for Lorentz invariance violation.     

Synchrotron radiation under conditions of violated lorentz invariance

We have obtained an exact solution to the Dirac equation for an electron in a constant uniform magnetic field by taking into account the anomalous magnetic moment and Lorentz invariance violation in minimal CPT-odd form. Based on the solution found, we have calculated synchrotron radiation characteristics and predicted possible observable effects attributable to the Lorentz invariance violation.     

CPT violation does not lead to violation of Lorentz invariance and vice versa

We present a class of interacting nonlocal quantum field theories, in which the CPT invariance is violated while the Lorentz invariance is present. This result rules out a previous claim in the literature that the CPT violation implies the violation of Lorentz invariance. Furthermore, there exists the reciprocal of this theorem, namely that the violation of Lorentz invariance does not lead to the CPT violation, provided that the residual symmetry of Lorentz invariance admits the proper representation theory for the particles. The latter occurs in the case of quantum field theories on a noncommutative space–time, which in place of the broken Lorentz symmetry possesses the twisted Poincaré invariance. With such a CPT-violating interaction and the addition of a C-violating (e.g., electroweak) interaction, the quantum corrections due to the combined interactions could lead to different properties for the particle and antiparticle, including their masses.     

Superluminal neutrino and spontaneous breaking of Lorentz invariance

Generally speaking, the existence of a superluminal neutrino can be attributed either to re-entrant Lorentz violation at ultralow energy from intrinsic Lorentz violation at ultrahigh energy or to spontaneous breaking of fundamental Lorentz invariance (possibly by the formation of a fermionic condensate). Re-entrant Lorentz violation in the neutrino sector has been discussed elsewhere. Here, the focus is on mechanisms of spontaneous symmetry breaking.     

On the consistency of Lorentz invariance violation in QED induced by fermions in constant axial-vector background

We show for the first time that the induced parity-even Lorentz invariance violation can be unambiguously calculated in the physically justified and minimally broken, dimensional regularization scheme, suitably tailored for a spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking in a field theory model. The quantization of the Lorentz invariance violating quantum electrodynamics is critically examined and shown to be consistent either for a light-like cosmic anisotropy axial-vector or for a time-like one, when in the presence of a bare photon mass.     

Lorentz invariance and quantum gravity: an additional fine-tuning problem?

Trying to combine standard quantum field theories with gravity leads to a breakdown of the usual structure of space time at around the Planck length, 1.6x10(-35) m, with possible violations of Lorentz invariance. Calculations of preferred-frame effects in quantum gravity have further motivated high precision searches for Lorentz violation. Here, we explain that combining known elementary particle interactions with a Planck-scale preferred frame gives rise to Lorentz violation at the percent level, some 20 orders of magnitude higher than earlier estimates, unless the bare parameters of the theory are unnaturally strongly fine tuned. Therefore an important task is not just the improvement of the precision of searches for violations of Lorentz invariance, but also the search for theoretical mechanisms for automatically preserving Lorentz invariance.     

Test of rotational invariance in <Emphasis Type="Italic">β</Emphasis> decay

The possibility of violation of rotational invariance in β decay is considered. Such violation would imply Lorentz invariance violation. Recent developments in experiment and theory are discussed.     

Cold atom clock test of Lorentz invariance in the matter sector

We report on a new experiment that tests for a violation of Lorentz invariance (LI), by searching for a dependence of atomic transition frequencies on the orientation of the spin of the involved states (Hughes-Drever type experiment). The atomic frequencies are measured using a laser cooled 133Cs atomic fountain clock, operating on a particular combination of Zeeman substates. We analyze the results within the framework of the Lorentz violating standard model extension (SME), where our experiment is sensitive to a largely unexplored region of the SME parameter space, corresponding to first measurements of four proton parameters and improvements by 11 and 13 orders of magnitude on the determination of four others. In spite of the attained uncertainties, and of having extended the search into a new region of the SME, we still find no indication of LI violation.     

Testing for Lorentz violation: constraints on standard-model-extension parameters via lunar laser ranging

We present constraints on violations of Lorentz invariance based on archival lunar laser-ranging (LLR) data. LLR measures the Earth-Moon separation by timing the round-trip travel of light between the two bodies and is currently accurate to the equivalent of a few centimeters (parts in 10(11) of the total distance). By analyzing this LLR data under the standard-model extension (SME) framework, we derived six observational constraints on dimensionless SME parameters that describe potential Lorentz violation. We found no evidence for Lorentz violation at the 10(-6) to 10(-11) level in these parameters. This work constitutes the first LLR constraints on SME parameters.     

Torsion balance experiments: A low-energy frontier of particle physics

We review recent mechanical experiments that test some of the most basic principles of physics including the weak and strong forms of the Equivalence Principle, the gravitational inverse-square law, and Lorentz invariance. The very high sensitivity of these tests allows one to place interesting constraints on string-theory inspired conjectures about new Yukawa forces from the exchange of very light scalar, pseudoscalar or vector particles, large extra dimensions, the chameleon mechanism, non-commutative spacetime geometry, and Planck-scale Lorentz violation.     

Lorentz invariance on trial in the weak decay of polarized atoms

One of the most fundamental principles underlying our current understanding of nature is the invariance of the laws of physics under Lorentz transformations. Theories trying to unify the Standard Model with quantum gravity suggest that this invariance may be broken by the presence of Lorentz-violating background fields. Dedicated high-precision experiments at low energies could observe such suppressed signals from the Planck scale. At KVI, a test on Lorentz invariance of the weak interaction is performed searching for a dependence of the decay rate of spin-polarized nuclei on the orientation of their spin with respect to a fixed absolute galactical reference frame. An observation of such a dependence would imply a violation of Lorentz invariance.     

Test of Lorentz invariance using optical cavities

This paper indroduces the precision test of Lorentz invariance using ultra-stable and low-loss optical cavities. The effective-field theory widely adopted in the analysis of experimental data has been reviewed. The sensitivity of the cavity resonant frequency to the Lorentz-violating tensor field is discussed in detail. In addition, the polarization of the optical field has been added to the model, and our analysis shows that the frequency shift due to Lorentz violation is not sensitive to the polarization of the optical field.      

The Gross-Neveu Model under the conditions of violated Lorentz invariance

The aim of this work is to calculate the effective potential in the two-dimensional Gross-Neveu model with violated Lorentz invariance, to study the properties of the obtained potential, and to find extreme points by solving the gap equation and to compare of the results with the theory in the case of nonviolated Lorentz invariance. It is shown that, in the model under study, the effects that make it crucially different from the well-studied model without violation are observed.     

Modified gravitational equations on braneworld with Lorentz invariant violation

The modified gravitational equations to describe a four-dimensional braneworld in the case with the Lorentz invariant violation in a bulk spacetime is presented. It contains a trace part of the brane energy-momentum tensor and the coefficients of all terms describe the Lorentz violation effects from the bulk spacetime. As an application, we apply this formalism to study cosmology. In respect to standard effective Friedmann equations on the brane, Lorentz invariance violation in the bulk causes a modification of this equations that can lead to significant physical consequences. In particular, the effective Friedmann equation on the brane explicitly depends on the equation of state of the brane matter and the Lorentz violating parameters. We show that the components of five-dimensional Weyl curvature are related to the matter on brane even at low energies. We also find that the constraints on the theory parameters are depend on the equation of state of the energy components of the brane matter. Finally, the stability of the model depend on the specific choices of initial conditions and the parameters β _i .     

Falsifying models of new physics via WW scattering

We show that the coefficients of operators in the electroweak chiral Lagrangian can be bounded if the underlying theory obeys the usual assumptions of Lorentz invariance, analyticity, unitarity, and crossing to arbitrarily short distances. Violations of these bounds can be explained by either the existence of new physics below the naive cutoff of the effective theory, or by the breakdown of one of these assumptions in the short distance theory. As a corollary, if no light resonances are found, then a measured violation of the bound would falsify generic models of string theory.     

Modified Dirac equation with Lorentz invariance violation and its solutions for particles in an external magnetic field

The second-order modified Dirac equation leading to the modified dispersion relation due to the Lorentz invariance violation corrections is suggested. The equation is formulated in the 16-component first-order form. I have obtained the projection matrix extracting solutions of the equation with definite spin projections which can be considered as the density matrix for pure spin states. Exact solutions of the equation are found for particles in the external constant and uniform magnetic field. The synchrotron radiation radius within the novel modified Dirac equation is estimated.     

The role of singular spinor fields in a torsional gravity,Lorentz-violating,framework

In this work, we consider a generalization of quantum electrodynamics including Lorentz violation and torsional-gravity, in the context of general spinor fields as classified in the Lounesto scheme. Singular spinor fields will be shown to be less sensitive to the Lorentz violation, as far as couplings between the spinor bilinear covariants and torsion are regarded. In addition, we prove that flagpole spinor fields do not admit minimal coupling to the torsion. In general, mass dimension four couplings are deeply affected when singular—flagpoles—spinors are considered, instead of the usual Dirac spinors. We also construct a mapping between spinors in the covariant framework and spinors in Lorentz symmetry breaking scenarios, showing how one may transliterate spinors of different classes between the two cases. Specific examples concerning the mapping of Dirac spinor fields in Lorentz violating scenarios into flagpole and flag-dipole spinors with full Lorentz invariance (including the cases of Weyl and Majorana spinors) are worked out.     

Quantum gravity and Lorentz invariance violation in the standard model

The most important problem of fundamental physics is the quantization of the gravitational field. A main difficulty is the lack of available experimental tests that discriminate among the theories proposed to quantize gravity. Recently, Lorentz invariance violation by quantum gravity (QG) has been the source of growing interest. However, the predictions depend on an ad hoc hypothesis and too many arbitrary parameters. Here we show that the standard model itself contains tiny Lorentz invariance violation terms coming from QG. All terms depend on one arbitrary parameter alpha that sets the scale of QG effects. This parameter can be estimated using data from the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray spectrum to be |alpha|< approximately 10(-22)-10(-23).     

Birefringence of hard electromagnetic waves of a field with Lorentz invariance violation in the expanding universe space-time

The dependence of the systematic polarization of radiation from extragalactic sources, arising in the models with Lorentz invariance violation, on the red shift Z is analyzed.     

Quantum dots for demonstration of additional dimensions of spacetime

By the example of electron mesoscopic systems, we show the impossibility of constraints of the quantum principle of superposition imposed by the superselection rule. This rule was introduced by Wick, Wightman, and Wigner in order to avoid the violation of Lorentz invariance due to the absence of physical invariance under rotations by an angle of 2π in states which are a coherent superposition of states with an even and odd number of fermions. We describe a mesoscopic system (a semiconductor double quantum dot at low temperatures) where such superpositions are realized; this is confirmed by experiments. We suggest a new experiment which explicitly demonstrates the absence of physical invariance under rotations by an angle of 2π. We note that an alternative to the superselection rule is the existence (along with x, y, z, and t) of additional spinor (Grassmann) dimensions of spacetime introduced in quantum field theory for realization of supersymmetry. It is proved that additional dimensions are real; their physical meaning is clarified for nonrelativistic systems of fermions.