1998/12/31 by Sidney Coleman, Sheldon L. Glashow · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.116008
published as Phys.Rev.D59:116008,1999 · 33 pages, uses harvmac. This 2nd revision corrects two typos, an error in the Appendix, and includes further acknowledgements
arxiv created 1999/01/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
We develop a perturbative framework with which to discuss departures from exact Lorentz invariance and explore their potentially observable ramifications. Tiny non-invariant terms introduced into the standard model Lagrangian are assumed to be renormalizable (dimension ≤ 4), invariant under SU(3)⊗ SU(2)⊗ U(1) gauge transformations, and rotationally and translationally invariant in a preferred frame. There are a total of 46 independent TCP-even perturbations of this kind, all of which preserve anomaly cancellation. They define the energy-momentum eigenstates and their maximal attainable velocities in the high-energy limit. The effects of these perturbations increase rapidly with energy in the preferred frame, more rapidly than those of TCP-odd perturbations. Our analysis of Lorentz-violating kinematics reveals several striking new phenomena that are relevant both to cosmic-ray physics (\it e.g., by undoing the GZK cutoff) and neutrino physics (\it e.g., by generating novel types of neutrino oscillations). These may lead to new and sensitive high-energy tests of special relativity.