There is a unique Lorentz-violating modification of the Maxwell theory of photons, which maintains gauge invariance, CPT, and renormalizability. Restricting the modified-Maxwell theory to the isotropic sector and adding a standard spin-one-half Dirac particle p^\pm with minimal coupling to the nonstandard photon \widetildeγ, the resulting modified-quantum-electrodynamics model involves a single dimensionless "deformation parameter," \widetildeκ_{tr}. The exact tree-level decay rates for two processes have been calculated: vacuum Cherenkov radiation p^\pm \to p^\pm \widetildeγ for the case of positive \widetildeκ_{tr} and photon decay \widetildeγ \to p^+ p^- for the case of negative \widetildeκ_{tr}. From the inferred absence of these decays for a particular high-quality ultrahigh-energy-cosmic-ray event detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory and an excess of TeV gamma-ray events observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System telescopes, a two-sided bound on \widetildeκ_{tr} is obtained, which improves by eight orders of magnitude upon the best direct laboratory bound. The implications of this result are briefly discussed.
We have analyzed Maxwell-Chern-Simons-Higgs BPS vortices in a Lorentz-violating CPT-odd context. The Lorentz violation induces profiles with a conical behavior at the origin. For some combination of the coefficients for Lorentz violation there always exists a sufficiently large winding number for which the magnetic field flips its sign.
Self-dual abelian Higgs system, involving both the Maxwell and Chern-Simons terms are obtained from Carroll-Field-Jackiw theory by dimensional reduction. Bogomol'nyi-type equations are studied from theoretical and numerical point of view. In particular we show that the solutions of these equations are Nielsen-Olesen vortices with electric charge.
Nonbirefringent modified-Maxwell theory, coupled to standard Dirac particles, involves nine dimensionless parameters, which can be bounded by the inferred absence of vacuum Cherenkov radiation for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). With selected UHECR events, two-sided bounds on the eight nonisotropic parameters are obtained at the 10^{-18} level, together with an improved one-sided bound on the single isotropic parameter at the 10^{-19} level.
We consider an extension of the Standard Model with isotropic nonbirefringent Lorentz violation in the photon sector and restrict the discussion to the case of a "fast" photon with a phase velocity larger than the maximum attainable velocity of the quarks and leptons. With our conventions, this case corresponds to a negative Lorentz-violating parameter $κ$ in the action. The decay rate of a neutral pion into two nonstandard photons is calculated as a function of the 3-momentum of the initial pion and the negative Lorentz-violating parameter $κ$ of the final photons.
Motivated by the couplings of the dilaton in four-dimensional effective actions, we investigate the cosmological consequences of a scalar field coupled both to matter and a Maxwell-type vector field. The vector field has a background isotropy-violating component. New anisotropic scaling solutions which can be responsible for the matter and dark energy dominated epochs are identified and explored. For a large parameter region the universe expands almost isotropically. Using that the CMB quadrupole is extremely sensitive to shear, we constrain the ratio of the matter coupling to the vector coupl…
We derive the eikonal equation of light wavefront in the presence of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) from the photon sector of the standard model extension (SME). The results obtained from the equations of $\mathbf{E}$ and $\mathbf{B}$ fields respectively are the same. This guarantees the self-consistency of our derivation. We adopt a simple case with only one non-zero LIV parameter as an illustration, from which we find two points. One is that, in analogy with Hamilton-Jacobi equation, from the eikonal equation, we can derive dispersion relations which are compatible with results obtained …
If there is Lorentz symmetry violation in the $t$ quark sector of the standard model, changes to particles' dispersion relations might allow for the existence of stable top-flavored hadrons. Observations of the survival of high-energy $γ$-rays over astrophysical distances can be used to place one-sided constraints on certain linear combinations of Lorentz violation coefficients in the $t$ sector at the $\sim 10^{-4}$ level of precision.
In the presence of Lorentz violation, the Cerenkov-like process $γ\rightarrowγ+π^{0}$ may become allowed for sufficiently energetic photons. Photons above the threshold would lose energy rapidly through pion emission. The fact that propagating photons with energies of up to 80 TeV survive to be observed on Earth allows us to place a one-sided constraint on an isotropic Lorentz violating parameter at the $7\times 10^{-13}$ level; this is more than an order of magnitude better than best previous result.
This article reviews the methods used to obtain a two-sided bound on isotropic modified Maxwell theory from experimental data of ultra high-energy cosmic rays in 2008. The bound is updated with results from the HEGRA experiment.
A particularly simple Lorentz-violating modification of the Maxwell theory of photons maintains gauge invariance, CPT, and renormalization. This modified-Maxwell theory, coupled to standard Dirac particles, involves nineteen dimensionless "deformation parameters." Ten of these parameters lead to birefringence and are already tightly constrained by astrophysics. New bounds on the remaining nine nonbirefringent parameters can be obtained from the absence of vacuum Cherenkov radiation for ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). Using selected UHECR events recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory a…
We consider the process of photon decay in quantum electrodynamics with a CPT-violating Chern-Simons-like term added to the action. For a simplified model with only the quadratic Maxwell and Chern-Simons-like terms and the quartic Euler-Heisenberg term, we obtain a nonvanishing probability for the decay of a particular photon state into three others.
We look for modifications that can be derived from the Maxwell sector of the SME for the interaction between electrical charges and the electromagnetic field. The kind of problem that we are looking into is the one that might be found in a standard textbook on electromagnetism: given a set of electrical charges, in the presence of some non-trivial boundary condition (such as a mirror), find the electromagnetic field and the interaction energy between those charges. To study such kind of problem in the presence of LV coefficients, we calculate the modified propagator for the Maxwell field, and …
There exist two deformations of standard electrodynamics that describe Lorentz symmetry violation in the photon sector: CPT-odd Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory and CPT-even modified Maxwell theory. In this article, we focus on the parity-odd nonbirefringent sector of modified Maxwell theory. It is coupled to a standard Dirac theory of massive spin-1/2 fermions resulting in a modified quantum electrodynamics (QED). This theory is discussed with respect to properties such as microcausality and unitarity, where it turns out that these hold. Furthermore, a priori, the limit of the theory for vanishing…
Maxwell theories along the light track: Null Formalism in extended electrodynamics
North China Electric Power University（华北电力大学）；Hebei Key Laboratory of Physics and Energy Technology, North China Electric Power University（华北电力大学河北省物理与能源技术重点实验室）；Beijing University of Agriculture（北京农学院）；Institute for Theoretical Physics & Cosmology, Zhejiang University of Technology（浙江工业大学理论物理与宇宙学研究所）；United Center for Gravitational Wave Physics (UCGWP), Zhejiang University of Technology（浙江工业大学联合引力波物理中心）
In this work we focus on the Carroll-Field-Jackiw (CFJ) modified electrodynamics in combination with a CPT-even Lorentz-violating contribution. We add a photon mass term to the Lagrange density and study the question whether this contribution can render the theory unitary. The analysis is based on the pole structure of the modified photon propagator as well as the validity of the optical theorem. We find, indeed, that the massive CFJ-type modification is unitary at tree-level. This result provides a further example for how a photon mass can mitigate malign behaviors.
We study the analytical structure of the fermion propagator in planar quantum electrodynamics coupled to a Chern-Simons term within a four-component spinor formalism. The dynamical generation of parity-preserving and parity-violating fermion mass terms is considered, through the solution of the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation for the fermion propagator at leading order of the 1/N approximation in Landau gauge. The theory undergoes a first order phase transition toward chiral symmetry restoration when the Chern-Simons coefficient $θ$ reaches a critical value which depends upon the number…
Present and future ultra-high-energy-cosmic-ray facilities (e.g., the South and North components of the Pierre Auger Observatory) and TeV-gamma-ray telescope arrays (e.g., HESS and CTA) have the potential to set stringent bounds on the nine Lorentz-violating parameters of nonbirefringent modified Maxwell theory minimally coupled to standard Dirac theory. A concrete example is given how to obtain, in the coming decennia, two-sided bounds on the eight anisotropic parameters at the 10^{-20} level and an upper (lower) bound on the single isotropic parameter at the +10^{-20} (-10^{-16}) level. Comp…
The emission of electromagnetic radiation by charges moving uniformly in a Lorentz-violating vacuum is studied. The analysis is performed within the classical Maxwell-Chern-Simons limit of the Standard-Model Extension (SME) and confirms the possibility of a Cherenkov-type effect. In this context, various properties of Cherenkov radiation including the rate, polarization, and propagation features, are discussed, and the back-reaction on the charge is investigated. An interpretation of this effect supplementing the conventional one is given. The emerging physical picture leads to a universal met…
We investigate lepton flavor violating decays in a SUSY SO(10) model with symmetric textures recently constructed by us. Unlike the models with lop-sided textures which give rise to a large decay rate for mu -> e gamma, the decay rate we get is much suppressed and yet it is large enough to be accessible to the next generation of experiments. We have also investigated the possibility of baryogenesis resulting from soft leptogenesis. We find that with the soft SUSY masses assuming their natural values, B^\prime \equiv \sqrt{BM_{1}} ~ 1.4 TeV and Im(A) ~ 1 TeV, the observed baryon asymmetry in th…
In this work we adapt the foundations of relativistic kinetic theory and the Boltzmann equation to particles with Lorentz-violating dispersion relations. The latter are taken to be those associated to two commonly considered sets of coefficients in the minimal Standard-Model Extension. We treat both the cases of classical (Maxwell-Boltzmann) and quantum (Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein) statistics. It is shown that with the appropriate definition of the entropy current, Boltzmann's H-theorem continues to hold. We derive the equilibrium solutions and then identify the Lorentz-violating effects fo…
We present a consistent, generally covariant quantization of light for non-vacuum birefringent, Lorentz-symmetry breaking electrodynamics in the context of the Standard Model Extension. We find that the number of light quanta in the field is not frame independent, and that the interaction of the quantized field with matter is necessarily birefringent. We also show that the conventional Lorenz gauge condition used to restrict the photon-mode basis to solutions of the Maxwell equations must be weakened to consistently describe Lorentz symmetry violation.
Direct laboratory bounds on the 9 nonbirefringent Lorentz-violating dimensionless parameters of modified-Maxwell theory range from the 10^{-7} level to the 10^{-16} level. The detection of air showers initiated by charged primaries (ultrahigh-energy cosmic-rays) and neutral primaries (TeV gamma-rays) allows us to obtain new indirect bounds ranging from the 10^{-15} level to the 10^{-19} level. Possible physics implications are briefly discussed.
In this paper, we consider an electrodynamics of higher derivatives coupled to a Lorentz-violating background tensor. Specifically, we are interested in a dimension-five term of the CPT-odd sector of the nonminimal Standard-Model Extension. By a particular choice of the operator $\hat{k}_{AF}$, we obtain a higher-derivative version of the Carroll-Field-Jackiw (CFJ) term, $\frac{1}{2}ε^{κλμν}A_λD_κ\square F_{μν}$, with a Lorentz-violating background vector $D_κ$. This modification is subject to being investigated. We calculate the propagator of the theory and from its poles, we analyze the disp…
We have performed a calculation in the parton-model approximation of a nonstandard decay process in isotropic modified Maxwell theory coupled to standard Dirac theory, with a single Lorentz-violating parameter $κ$ in the photonic sector. Previous calculations of this process (vacuum Cherenkov radiation by a proton for the theory with $κ>0$) were performed for pointlike particles, and an upper bound on $κ$ at the $10^{-19}$ level was obtained from experimental data on ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. The parton-model results change the decay rate by about an order of magnitude but give the same u…
A comparative study of two predictive SO(10) models, namely the BPW model (proposed by Babu, Pati and Wilczek) and the AB model (proposed by Albright and Barr) is done based on their predictions regarding CP and flavor violations. The values of Δm_K, ε_K, Δm_{B_d} and S(B_d\to J/ψK_S) are found, in both models, to be close to SM predictions, in good agreement with data. Both models predict that S(B_d\to ϕK_S) should lie in the range +0.65-0.74, close to the SM prediction and that the EDM of the neutron \approx (few\times 10^{-26})e-cm. It is found that $Br(μ\to eγ)$ in the AB model is generica…
The aim of this brief review is to present a case study of how astrophysics data can be used to get bounds on Lorentz-violating parameters. For this purpose, a particularly simple Lorentz-violating modification of the Maxwell theory of photons is considered, which maintains gauge invariance, CPT, and renormalization. With a standard spin-one-half Dirac particle minimally coupled to this nonstandard photon, the resulting modified-quantum-electrodynamics model involves nineteen dimensionless "deformation parameters." Ten of these parameters lead to birefringence and are already tightly constrain…
In a recent paper[1] Kundu and one of the present authors showed that there were transient but observable CP violating effects in the decay of classical currents on the horizon of a black hole, if the Lagrangian of the Maxwell field contained a CP violating angle θ. In this paper we demonstrate that a similar effect can be seen in the quantum mechanics of QED: a non-trivial Berry phase in the QED wave function is produced by in-falling electric charges. We also investigate whether CP violation, of this or any other type, might be used to produce the baryon asymmetry of the universe, in models …
Violations of Lorentz invariance can lead to an energy-dependent vacuum dispersion of light, which results in arrival-time differences of photons arising with different energies from a given transient source. In this work, direction-dependent dispersion constraints are obtained on nonbirefringent Lorentz-violating effects, using the observed spectral lags of the gamma-ray burst GRB 160625B. This burst has unusually large high-energy photon statistics, so we can obtain constraints from the true spectral time lags of bunches of high-energy photons rather than from the rough time lag of a single …
In this paper we study in detail the effect of our recently proposed model of parity and charge-parity (PCP) violating varying alpha on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) photon passing through the intra galaxy-cluster medium (ICM). The ICM is well known to be composed of magnetized plasma. According to our model, the polarization and intensity of the CMB would be affected when traversing through the ICM due to non-trivial scalar photon interactions. We have calculated the evolution of such polarization and intensity collectively, known as the stokes parameters of the CMB photon during its …
Recently two collaborations, Tibet and HAWC, presented new measurements of gamma-ray spectrum from Crab Nebula \cite{Amenomori:2019rjd},\cite{Abeysekara:2019edl} which continues beyond $100$ TeV. We use these data to establish two-sided constraints on parameters of Lorentz Invariance violation in quantum electrodynamics. The limits on Lorentz violating mass scale for quartic dispersion relation are $4.1\times 10^{14}\ \mbox{GeV}$ (photon splitting) and $1.9\times 10^{13}\ \mbox{GeV}$ (photon decay) for superluminal case, and $1.4\times 10^{12}$ GeV (suppression of shower formation) for sublumi…
Lorentz violation emerged from a fundamental description of nature may impact, at low energies, the Maxwell sector, so that contributions from such new physics to the electromagnetic vertex would be induced. Particularly, nonbirefringent $CPT$-even effects from the electromagnetic sector modified by the Lorentz- and $CPT$-violating Standard Model Extension alter the structure of the free photon propagator. We calculate Lorentz-violating contributions to the electromagnetic vertex, at the one-loop level, by using a modified photon propagator carrying this sort of effects. We take the photon off…
This proceedings contribution reports the first experimental search for Lorentz- and CPT-violating signals specifically studying the effect of the Standard-Model Extension (SME) oscillation-free momentum-independent neutrino coupling operator in the double beta decay process. The search has been performed using an exposure of 100 kg yr of $^{136}$Xe with the EXO-200 detector. No significant evidence of the spectral modification due to isotropic Lorentz violation was found. A two-sided limit of $-2.65 \times 10^{-5}$ GeV $<$ $\mathring{a}_{\mathrm{of}}^{(3)}$ $< 7.60 \times 10^{-6}$ GeV (90% C.…
Present and future ultra-high-energy-cosmic-ray facilities (e.g., the Pierre Auger Observatory with South and North components) and TeV-gamma-ray telescope arrays (e.g., HESS or VERITAS and CTA) have the potential to set stringent indirect bounds on the nine Lorentz-violating parameters of nonbirefringent modified Maxwell theory minimally coupled to standard Dirac theory. Theoretically, the most interesting case is isotropic Lorentz violation, which is described by a single parameter [taken to vanish for the standard Lorentz-invariant theory]. It appears possible to obtain in the future an upp…
Within the model of a Lorentz violating extension of the Maxwell sector of the standard model, modified light propagation leads to a change of the resonance frequency of an electromagnetic cavity, allowing cavity tests of Lorentz violation. However, the frequency is also affected by a material-dependent length change of the cavity due to a modified Coulomb potential arising from the same Lorentz violation as well. We derive the frequency change of the cavity taking both into account. The new effects derived are negligible for present experiments, but will be more pronounced in future tests usi…
A Lorentz-noninvariant modification of quantum electrodynamics (QED) is considered, which has photons described by the nonbirefringent sector of modified Maxwell theory and electrons described by the standard Dirac theory. These photons and electrons are taken to propagate and interact in a Schwarzschild spacetime background. For appropriate Lorentz-violating parameters, the photons have an effective horizon lying outside the Schwarzschild horizon. A particular type of Compton scattering event, taking place between these two horizons (in the photonic ergoregion) and ultimately decreasing the m…
