Lorentz Violation for Photons and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays

2007/08/31 by Matteo Galaverni, Guenter Sigl · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.021102

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.100:021102,2008 · 4 revtex pages, 3 postscript figures included, version published in PRL

arxiv created 2008/07/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

Lorentz symmetry breaking at very high energies may lead to photon dispersion relations of the form omega²=k²+xi_n k²(k/M_Pl)ⁿ with new terms suppressed by a power n of the Planck mass M_Pl. We show that first and second order terms of size xi₁ > 10^(-14) and xi₂ < -10^(-6), respectively, would lead to a photon component in cosmic rays above 10^(19) eV that should already have been detected, if corresponding terms for electrons and positrons are significantly smaller. This suggests that Lorentz invariance breakings suppressed up to second order in the Planck scale are unlikely to be phenomenologically viable for photons.

Cited by

• GZK photon constraints on Planck-scale Lorentz violation in QED
• Klein--Gordon and Dirac Oscillators with an Apparent Mass Induced by the Momentum-Space Dual of the Fock--Lorentz Transformations

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