2013/02/05 by Robert Bluhm, Robert T. Bluhm
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Algebraic and Geometric Analysis #CPT symmetry #Extension (predicate logic) #Lorentz covariance #Lorentz factor #Lorentz transformation #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum field theory #Quantum gravity #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Standard Model (mathematical formulation) #Symmetry (geometry) #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-41992-8_23
Chapter to appear in The Springer Handbook of Spacetime, Springer-Verlag, 2013
arxiv created 2013/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/12 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The idea that local Lorentz invariance might be violated due to new physics that goes beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and Einstein's General Relativity has received a great deal of interest in recent years. At the same time, new experiments have been designed and conducted that are able to test Lorentz symmetry at unprecedented levels. Much of this theoretical and experimental progress has been driven by the development of the framework for investigating Lorentz violation known as the Standard Model Extension (SME). The SME is the lagrangian-based effective field theory that by definition contains all Lorentz-violating interaction terms that can be written as observer scalars involving particle fields in the Standard Model and gravitational fields in a generalized theory of gravity. This includes all terms that could arise from a process of spontaneous Lorentz violation as well as terms that explicitly break Lorentz symmetry. In this article, an overview of the SME is presented, including its motivations and construction. A very useful minimal version of the SME in Minkowski spacetime that maintains gauge invariance and power-counting renormalizability is constructed as well. Data tables summarizing tests of local Lorentz invariance for the different particle sectors in the Standard Model and with gravity are maintained by Kostelecký's group at Indiana University. A partial survey of these tests, including some of the high-precision sensitivities they attain, is presented here.