We consider Lorentz- and CPT-violating dimension-5 operators to address the issue of superluminal neutrinos recently pointed out in OPERA experiments. We assume these operators in the photon and neutrino sectors coupled to Lorentz-violating backgrounds in a preferred frame defined by a time-like direction. We show that such operators can produce a curve with OPERA's slope that fits OPERA, MINOS and supernova SN1987a data.
The new results by OPERA collaboration claim the discovery of superluminal neutrinos. Superluminal particles have to break Lorentzian symmetry or causality principle. The method discussed gives us the possibility to reintroduce Lorentzian symmetry without breaking of causality.
The toy fermion model coupled with Lagrange multiplier constraint field is proposed. The possibility of superluminal neutrino propagation as result of dynamical Lorentz symmetry breaking is studied.
In this article an idea is presented, which allows for the explanation of superluminal muon neutrinos. It is based on the introduction of a new superluminal, massless gauge boson coupling to the neutrino only, but not to other standard model particles. The model is discussed with regard to the Supernova 1987 (SN 1987) velocity bound on electron antineutrinos and the Cohen-Glashow constraint on superluminal neutrino propagation. The latter can be circumvented if - within the framework of the model - a sterile neutrino mixing with the active neutrino mass eigenstates is introduced. The suggestio…
OPERA collaboration has reported evidence of superluminal phenomenon for neutrinos. One of the possible ways to explain the superluminality is to have Lorentz symmetry violated. It has been shown that dispersion relations put forwards has the problem of physics laws vary in different inertial frames leading to conflicting results on Cherenkov-like radiation, pion decay and high energy neutrino cosmic ray. For theories with deformed Lorentz symmetry, by modifying conservation laws corresponding to energy and momentum in the usual Lorentz invariant theory, it is possible to have superluminal eff…
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.
An interpretation of the superluminal velocity observed by OPERA collaboration is given in terms wave packet distortion of ultrarelativistic massive neutrinos. Standard quantum-mechanical time evolution of physical states can explain the observed Delta x/Delta t > c without violating the fundamental principles of special relativity.
We show that in the presence of a distance dependent Lorentz-violating time-like background one may find superluminal neutrinos at some high energy such as OPERA's scale. The similar behavior but approaching the subluminal branch is found to appear for inflaton field in the low energy scale. Thus this scenario seems to be suitable to acomplish both superluminal neutrinos and dark energy.
A particular Fermi-point-splitting (FPS) model is proposed, which allows, for finite values of the three-momentum, the group and phase velocities of the muon-flavor neutrino in vacuum to be superluminal (i.e., muon-neutrino velocities greater than c, the velocity of light in vacuum). Still, the proposed FPS model has a front velocity equal to c for all particles, which is known to be crucial for causality. If the muon-neutrino velocity is indeed superluminal as claimed by OPERA, the model predicts that at least one of the other two flavors of neutrinos has a subluminal velocity.
OPERA has claimed the discovery of superluminal propagation of neutrinos. We analyze the consistency of this claim with previous tests of special relativity. We find that reconciling the OPERA measurement with information from SN1987a and from neutrino oscillations requires stringent conditions. The superluminal limit velocity of neutrinos must be nearly flavor independent, must decrease steeply in the low-energy domain, and its energy dependence must depart from a simple power law. We construct illustrative models that satisfy these conditions, by introducing Lorentz violation in a sector wit…
The observation of cosmic neutrinos up to 2 PeV is used to put bounds on the energy scale of Lorentz invariance violation through the loss of energy due to the production of $e^+e^-$ pairs in the propagation of superluminal neutrinos. A model to study this effect, which allows to understand qualitatively the results of numerical simulations, is presented.
In this paper, we consider the apparent superluminal speed of neutrinos in their travel from CERN to Gran Susso, as measured by the OPERA experiment, within the framework of the Extended Lorentz Transformation Model. The model is based on a natural extension of Lorentz transformation by wick rotation. Scalar and Dirac's fields are considered and invariance under the new lorentz group is discussed. Moreover, an extension of quantum mechanics to accommodate new particles is considered using the newly proposed Generalized-$\mathbb{C}$ quantum mechanics. A two dimensional representation of the new…
The superluminal is reported in OPERA neutrino experiment (arXiv:1109.4897v2), this result is consistent with previous MINOS experiment about neutrino velocity (Phys. Rev. D 76, 072005 (2007)). Here we propose a Dirac equation of tachyon for superluminal neutrino in which the mass matrix is anti-hermitian. Additionally we find that this anti-hermitian mass matrix which is responsible for superluminal can only be for neutrinos, while other results of Standard Model are unchanged. In case that Lorentz invariant is remained, the masses of neutrinos are estimated based on available data of experim…
We suggest a possible interpretation of the recent observation by the OPERA collaboration of superluminal propagation of neutrinos. We show that it is in principle possible that the group velocity of neutrinos exceeds the speed of light without violating special relativity.
It is shown that the measured neutrino velocity, apparently violating relativity theory, is compatible with (general) relativistic causality provided that we assume that the metric of spacetime fluctuates at short distances.
A brief summary is given of recent developments concerning a Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model and its implications for experiments testing Lorentz and CPT symmetry.
In this talk, the stationary limit of Lorentz-violating electrodynamics is discussed. As illustrated by some simple examples, the general solution includes unconventional mixing of electrostatic and magnetostatic effects. I discuss a high-sensitivity null-type measurement, exploiting Lorentz-violating electromagnetostatic effects, that could improve existing limits on parity-odd coefficients for Lorentz violation in the photon sector.
The use of the vacuum lepton pair production process ($ν\to νe^- e^+ $), a viable reaction for superluminal neutrinos, to put constraints on Lorentz violations requires a dynamical framework. Different choices of dynamical matrix elements and modified dispersion relations for neutrinos, leading to numerical factors differing by one order of magnitude in the results for the pair production decay width, are used to show the uncertainties on these constraints.
We study the Lorentz and CPT violating effects on the branching ratio and the CP violating asymmetry of the lepton flavor violating interactions μ\to eγand τ\to μγ, in the model III version of the two Higgs doublet model. Here we consider that the Lorentz and CPT violating effects exist in the QED part of the interactions and enter into expressions in the lepton propagators and in the lepton-photon vertex. We observe that there exists a non-zero CP asymmetry. However, the Lorentz and CPT violating effects on the braching ratio and the CP asymmetry are negligibly small.
We study the Lorentz and CPT violating effects on the branching ratio BR, the CPT violating asymmetry A_{CPT} and the ratio of the decay width, including only the Lorentz violating effects, to the one obtained in the standard model, for the flavor dependent part of the lepton flavor conserving Z\to l^+ l^- (l=e,μ,τ) decay. The inclusion of the Lorentz and CPT violating effects to the standard model contribution is too small to be detected, since the corresponding coefficients are highly suppressed at the low energy scale.
From the data release of OPERA - CNGS experiment, and publicly announced on 23 September 2011, we cast a phenomenological model based on a Majorana neutrino state carrying a fictitious imaginary mass term, already discussed by Majorana in 1932. This mass term can be induced by the interaction with the matter of the Earth's crust during the 735 Km travel. Within the experimental errors, we prove that the model fits with OPERA, MINOS and supernova SN1987a data. Possible violations to Lorentz invariance due to quantum gravity effects have been considered.
We investigate whether postulating the existence of Lorentz-violating, CPT-conserving interactions allows three-neutrino solutions to the LSND anomaly that are also consistent with all other neutrino data. We show that Lorentz-violating interactions that couple only to one of the active neutrinos have the right properties to explain all the data. The details of the data make this solution unattractive. We find, for example, that a highly non-trivial energy dependence of the Lorentz-violating interactions is required.
We study semi-classical communication in positivity-violating k-essence scalar field theories, with superluminal modes propagating on a rolling background. The self-interactions due to the non-linear nature of these theories pose a constraint on the rate of superluminal information transfer. We derive a novel bit rate bound on superluminal communication within a conceptual model, to which a general class of k-essence theories naturally reduces. Our result implies the possibility that, even if these positivity-violating k-essence theories may not possess a maximal information propagation speed,…
The IceCube observation of cosmic neutrinos with $E_ν > 60$ TeV, most of which are likely of extragalactic origin, allows one to severely constrain Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) in the neutrino sector, allowing for the possible existence of superluminal neutrinos. The subsequent neutrino energy loss by vacuum $e^+e^-$ pair emission (VPE) is strongly dependent on the strength of LIV. In this paper we explore the physics and cosmology of superluminal neutrino propagation. We consider a conservative scenario for the redshift distribution of neutrino sources. Then by propagating a generic neu…
The general features of renormalization and the renormalization group in QED and in general quantum field theories in curved spacetime with additional Lorentz- and CPT-violating background fields are reviewed.
We propose a new Lorentz invariant violating extension for the pure photonic sector of the Standard Model due to the condensation of topological defects in the context of the Julia-Toulouse mechanism. Possible physical consequences leading to direct measurable effects over the confining properties of the elementary particles are explored.
The static limit of Lorentz-violating electrodynamics in vacuum and in media is investigated. Features of the general solutions include the need for unconventional boundary conditions and the mixing of electrostatic and magnetostatic effects. Explicit solutions are provided for some simple cases. Electromagnetostatics experiments show promise for improving existing sensitivities to parity-odd coefficients for Lorentz violation in the photon sector.
The prospects are explored for testing Lorentz- and CPT-violating quantum electrodynamics in experiments with Penning traps. We present the Lagrange density of Lorentz-violating spinor electrodynamics with operators of mass dimensions up to six, and we discuss some of its properties. The theory is used to derive Lorentz- and CPT-violating perturbative shifts of the energy levels of a particle confined to a Penning trap. Observable signals are discussed for trapped electrons, positrons, protons, and antiprotons. Existing experimental measurements on anomaly frequencies are used to extract new o…
In this work, we present CPT- and Lorentz-violating corrections to observable quantities in electron-proton scattering. We also show how the theoretical prediction can be used together with data to establish bounds on a coefficient for CPT and Lorentz violation in the QCD sector.
We study two superluminal neutrino scenarios where δv\equiv (v-c)/c is a constant. To be consistent with the OPERA, Borexino, and ICARUS experiments and with the SN1987a observations, we assume that δv_ν on the Earth is about three order larger than that on the interstellar scale. To explain the theoretical challenges from the Bremsstrahlung effects and pion decays, we consider the deformed Lorentz invariance, and show that the superluminal neutrino dispersion relations can be realized properly while the modifications to the dispersion relations of the other Standard Model particles can be neg…
The classification of Lorentz- and CPT-violating operators in nonabelian gauge field theories is performed. We construct all gauge-invariant terms describing propagation and interaction in the action for fermions and gauge fields. Restrictions to the abelian, Lorentz-invariant, and isotropic limits are presented. We provide two illustrative applications of the results to quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics. First constraints on nonlinear Lorentz-violating effects in electrodynamics are obtained using data from experiments on photon-photon scattering, and corrections from nonmini…
We extend Lorentz-violating Supersymmetry models to include vector superfields. The CPT-preserving model generalizes easily, while the obvious attempt at generalizing the CPT-violating model meets serious obstructions. Generalizations of the CPT-preserving but Lorentz-Violating model to higher dimensions are also straightforward. Compactification is used to reduce the six-dimensional theory to an ${\cal{N}} =2$ Lorentz-violating theory in four dimensions, while the ten-dimensional theory is used to produce an ${\cal{N}}=4$ Lorentz-violating theory. This may be useful in future constructions in…
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.
We study the decay widths of the processes H^+\to W^+ H^0 (h^0,A^0), including the Lorentz violating effects and analyze the possible CPT violating asymmetry arising from CPT odd coefficients. We observe that these effects are too small to be detected, since the corresponding coefficients are highly suppressed at the low energy scale.
In this work we analyse a non-minimal Lorentz-violating extension of the electroweak theory in the fermionic sector. Firstly we analyse the relation between the CKM rotation in the quark sector and possible contributions of this new coupling to flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) processes. In sequel we look for non-diagonal terms through possible leptonic flavour violation (LFV) decays. Strong bounds are presented to the Lorentz violating parameters of both the quark and the leptonic sectors.
This report presents a brief review on the experimental measurements of the muon neutrino velocities from the OPERA, Fermilab and MINOS experiments and that of the (anti)-electron neutrino velocities from the supernova SN1987A, and consequently on the theoretical attempts to attribute the data as signals for superluminality of neutrinos. Different scenarios on how to understand and treat the background fields in the effective field theory frameworks are pointed out. Challenges on interpreting the OPERA result as a signal of neutrino superluminality are briefly reviewed and discussed. It is als…
Remnant low-energy effects of Planck-scale Lorentz breaking in candidate fundamental theories typically include modified one-particle dispersion relations. Theoretical constraints on such modifications are discussed leading to the exclusion of a variety of previously considered Lorentz-violating parameters. In particular, the fundamental principle of coordinate independence, the role of an effective dynamical framework, and the conditions of positivity and causality are investigated.
A new model for neutrino oscillations is introduced, in which mass-like behavior is seen at high energies, but various behavior can be predicted at low energies. The model employs no neutrino masses, but instead relies on the Lorentz-violating parameters a and c. Oscillations into antineutrinos and sterile neutrinos are also considered.
We study the Lorentz and CPT violating effects on the ratio \frac{BR_{LorVio}}{BR_{SM}}, where BR_{LorVio} (BR_{SM}) is the branching ratios coming from the Lorentz violating effects (the SM), for the decays H^0\to f^+ f^- (f= quarks and charged leptons) and H^0\to ZZ (W^+ W^-). We observe that these new effects are too small to be detected, especially for f^+ f^- output, since the corresponding coefficients are highly suppressed at the low energy scale.
Perturbative calculations in quantum field theory often require the regularization of infrared divergences. In quantum electrodynamics, such a regularization can for example be accomplished by a photon mass introduced via the Stueckelberg method. The present work extends this method to the QED limit of the Lorentz- and CPT-violating Standard-Model Extension.
A three-parameter model of neutrino oscillations based on a simple Lorentz- and CPT-violating texture is presented. The model is consistent with established data and naturally generates low-energy and neutrino-antineutrino anomalies of the MiniBooNE type. A one-parameter extension incorporates the MINOS anomaly, while a simple texture enhancement accommodates the LSND signal.
The current paper summarizes the content of a talk given on vacuum Cherenkov radiation emitted by Lorentz-violating fermions that are described in the context of the Standard-Model Extension. The decay rate will be obtained for various sets of controlling coefficients that will subsequently be constrained using cosmic-ray data.
The detection of high-energy neutrino coincident with the blazar TXS 0506+056 provides a unique opportunity to test Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) in the neutrino sector. Thanks to the precisely measured redshift, i.e., $z=0.3365$, the comoving distance of the neutrino source is determined. In this work, we obtain and discuss the constraints on the superluminal neutrino velocity $δ_ν$ and the LIV by considering the energy loss of superluminal neutrino during propagation. Given superluminal electron velocity ($δ_e \ge 0$), a very stringent constraint on superluminal neutrino velocity can be…
This paper investigates how the nonzero temperature affects the differential cross-section for mesons scattering in a Lorentz-violating extension of the scalar electrodynamics. We initially discuss some features of the model and extract the zero temperature Feynman rules. Temperature effects are introduced using the Thermo Field Dynamics (TFD) formalism. It is shown that the corrections induced on the meson scattering are very large in the high-temperature regime. Furthermore, our results also suggest that temperature effects may contribute to new constraints on the Lorentz-violating parameter…
A general method is presented to build all gauge-invariant terms in gauge field theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics. It is applied to two experiments, light-by-light scattering and deep inelastic scattering, to extract first bounds on certain nonminimal coefficients for Lorentz violation.
We revisit the bremsstrahlung process of a superluminal neutrino motivated by OPERA results. From a careful analysis of the plane wave solutions of the superluminal neutrino, we find that the squared matrix elements contain additional terms from Lorentz violation due to the modified spin sum for the neutrino. We point out that the coefficients of the decay rate and the energy loss rate significantly depend on the details of the model, although the results are parametrically similar to the ones obtained by Cohen and Glashow [1]. We illustrate this from the modified neutral current interaction o…
We analyze the possibility of superluminal neutrino propagation delta v = (v - c)/c > 0 as indicated by OPERA data, in view of previous phenomenological constraints from supernova SN1987a and gravitational Cerenkov radiation. We argue that the SN1987a data rule out delta v ~ (E_ν/M_N)^N for N \le 2 and exclude, in particular, a Lorentz-invariant interpretation in terms of a 'conventional' tachyonic neutrino. We present two toy Lorentz-violating theoretical models, one a Lifshitz-type fermion model with superluminality depending quadratically on energy, and the other a Lorentz-violating modific…
We argue that the recent measurement of the neutrino velocity to be higher than the velocity of light could be due to violation of Lorentz invariance by the muon neutrinos. This result need not undermine special-relativistic foundational notions of causality.
Lorentz-violating neutrino parameters have been severely constrained on the basis of astrophysical considerations. In the high-energy limit, one generally assumes a superluminal dispersion relation of an incoming neutrino of the form E ~ |p|v, where E is the energy, p is the momentum and $v = sqrt(1 + delta) > 1. Lepton-pair creation due to a Cerenkov-radiation-like process (nu -> nu + e^- + e^+) becomes possible above a certain energy threshold, and bounds on the Lorentz-violating parameter delta can be derived. Here, we investigate a related process, nu_i -> nu_i + nu_f + bar_nu_f, where nu_…
We show that the superluminal muon neutrinos in the recent OPERA experiment can exist theoretically. The refutation of the OPERA experiment from some theoretical arguments is not universally valid, but resulting from some implicit assumptions. Our argument can accommodate both the OPERA experiment for superluminal neutrinos and the ICARUS experiment of no evidence for the analogues Cherenkov radiation of muon neutrinos from CERN to the LNGS.
In Lorentz-violating electrodynamics a steady current (and similarly a static charge) generates both static magnetic and electric fields. These induced fields, acting on interfering particles, change the interference pattern. We find that particle interference experiments are sensitive to small Lorentz violating effects, and thus they can be used to improve current bounds on some Lorentz-violating parameters.
We show that the general Lorentz- and CPT-violating extension of quantum electrodynamics is one-loop renormalizable. The one-loop Lorentz-violating beta functions are obtained, and the running of the coefficients for Lorentz and CPT violation is determined. Some implications for theory and experiment are discussed.
I discuss progress towards "bootstrapping" a Lorentz-violating gravity theory: namely, extending a linear Lorentz-violating theory of a rank-2 tensor to a non-linear theory by coupling this field to its own stress-energy tensor.
Possible Lorentz-violating effects in the cosmic microwave background are studied. We provide a systematic classification of renormalizable and nonrenormalizable operators for Lorentz violation in electrodynamics and use polarimetric observations to search for the associated violations.
Modified neutrino dispersion relations, which still obey the relativity principle, can have both a superluminal (muon-type) neutrino and a luminal (electron-type) neutrino, as long as neutrino-mass effects can be neglected. The idea is to allow for flavor-dependent deformed Lorentz transformations and an appropriate hierarchy of energy scales. If OPERA's result on a superluminal velocity of the muon-neutrino is confirmed, the model has a matching superluminal velocity of the corresponding charged lepton, the muon, at equal particle energy. Assuming that this model is not already ruled out, new…
We calculate a finite momentum-dependent part of the photon polarization operator in a simple model of Lorentz-violating quantum electrodynamics nonperturbatively at all orders of Lorentz-violating parameters. We sum one-particle reducible diagrams into the modified photon propagator, and determine the physical photon dispersion relation as the location of its pole. The photon dispersion relation, as well as its group velocity, acquires the one-loop momentum-dependent radiative correction. We constrain the Lorentz-violating parameters for heavy charged fermions (muon, $τ$-lepton, top-quark) fr…
We give a complete classification of mass dimension five Lorentz-non-invariant interactions composed from the Standard Model fields, using the effective field theory approach. We identify different classes of Lorentz violating operators, some of which are protected against transmutation to lower dimensions even at the loop level. Within each class of operators we determine a typical experimental sensitivity to the size of Lorentz violation.
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.
We study an extension of QED involving a light pseudoscalar (an axion-like particle), together with a very massive fermion which has Lorentz-violating interactions with the photon and the pseudoscalar, including a nonminimal Lorentz-violating coupling. We investigate the low energy effective action for this model, after integration over the fermion field, and show that interesting results are obtained, such as the generation of a correction to the standard coupling between the axion-like particle and the photon, as well as Lorentz-violating effects in the interaction energy involving electroma…
