There is growing evidence that Hořava gravity may be a viable quantum theory of gravity. It is thus legitimate to expect that gravitational collapse in the full, non-projectable version of the theory should result in geometries that are free of spacetime singularities. Previous analyses have shown that such geometries must belong to one of the following classes: simply connected regular black holes with inner horizons; non-connected black holes "hiding" a wormhole mouth (black bounces); simply connected or non-connected horizonless compact objects. Here, we consider a singular black hole in the low-energy limit of non-projectable Hořava gravity, i.e. khronometric theory, and describe examples of its possible "regularisations", covering all of the viable classes. To our knowledge, these examples constitute the first instances of black holes with inner universal horizons, of black bounces and of stars with a de Sitter core in the context of Lorentz-violating theories of gravity.
Lorentz-Violating (Regular) Black Holes in Einstein Gravity
Center for Joint Quantum Studies, Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University（天津大学理学院物理系联合量子研究中心）；The International Joint Institute of Tianjin University, Fuzhou, Tianjin University（天津大学福州国际联合学院）
I present a topological defect solution that arises in a theory where Lorentz symmetry is spontaneously broken by a rank-two antisymmetric tensor field, and I discuss its observational signatures.
The well-known analogy between a special limit of General Relativity and electromagnetism is explored in the context of the Lorentz-violating Standard-Model Extension (SME). An analogy is developed for the minimal SME that connects a limit of the CPT-even component of the electromagnetic sector to the gravitational sector. We show that components of the post-newtonian metric can be directly obtained from solutions to the electromagnetic sector. The method is illustrated with specific examples including static and rotating sources. Some unconventional effects that arise for Lorentz-violating el…
The fundamental issues of microcausality and energy positivity conditions are important to be investigated in the context of spontaneous Lorentz violating theories. We check the microcausality and energy positivity conditions for a free rank-2 antisymmetric tensor field with spontaneous Lorentz violating term and a classically equivalent vector theory from dispersion relations and propagators, and find that the two theories lead to different conditions. While the antisymmetric tensor theory satisfies energy positivity condition and can satisfy microcausality condition for a particular choice o…
In this paper, we obtain dispersion relations corresponding to plane wave solutions in various Lorentz-breaking extensions of gravity with dimensions 3, 4, 5 and 6. We demonstrate that these dispersion relations display an usual Lorentz-invariant mode when the corresponding additive term involves higher derivatives.
Motivated by the interest raised by the problem of Lorenz-symmetry violating gauge theories in connetion with gravity models, this contribution sets out to provide a general method to systematically study the excitation spectrum of gravity actions which include a Lorentz-symmetry breaking Chern-Simons-type action term for the spin connection. A complete set of spin-type operators is found which accounts for the (Lorentz) violation parameter to all orders and graviton propagators are worked out in a number of different situations.
Black holes in Lorentz violating gravity, such as Einstein--Aether or Horava--Lifshitz Gravity, are drastically different from their general relativistic siblings. Although they allow for superluminal motion in their vicinity, they still exhibit an absolute causal boundary in the form of a universal horizon. By working in the tunneling picture for a gravitating scalar field, we show that universal horizons emit Hawking radiation in a manner akin to standard results in General Relativity, with a temperature controlled by the high-energy behavior of the dispersion relation of the gravitating fie…
In this paper we consider the acoustic black hole metrics obtained from a relativistic fluid under the influence of constant background that violates the Lorentz symmetry to study the analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. We show that the scattering of planar waves by a draining bathtub vortex leads to a modified AB effect and due to the Lorentz symmetry breaking, the phase shift persists even in the limit where the parameters associated with the circulation and draining vanish. In this limit, the Lorentz-violating background forms a conical defect, which is also responsible for the appea…
We consider a model of noncommutative gravity that is based on a spacetime with broken local SO(2,3) symmetry. We show that the torsion-free version of this model is contained within the framework of the Lorentz-violating Standard-Model Extension. We analyze in detail the relation between the torsion-free, quadratic limits of the broken SO(2,3) model and the Standard-Model Extension. As part of the analysis,we construct the relevant geometric quantities to quadratic order in the metric perturbation around a flat background.
Gravitational collapse singularities are undesirable, yet inevitable to a large extent in General Relativity. When matter satisfying null energy condition collapses to the extent a closed trapped surface is formed, a singularity is inevitable according to Penrose's singularity theorem. Since positive mass vacuum solutions are generally black holes with trapped surfaces inside the event horizon, matter cannot collapse to an arbitrarily small size without generating a singularity. However, in modified theories of gravity where positive mass vacuum solutions are naked singularities with no trappe…
We explore the impact of Lorentz violation on the inflationary scenario. More precisely, we study the inflationary scenario in the scalar-vector-tensor theory where the vector is constrained to be unit and time like. It turns out that the Lorentz violating vector affects the dynamics of the chaotic inflationary model and divides the inflationary stage into two parts; the Lorentz violating stage and the standard slow roll stage. We show that the universe is expanding as an exact de Sitter spacetime in the Lorentz violating stage although the inflaton field is rolling down the potential. Much mo…
We study cosmological implications of a Lorentz invariance violating DGP-inspired braneworld scenario. A minimally coupled scalar field and a single, fixed-norm, Lorentz-violating timelike vector field within an interactive picture provide a wide parameter space which accounts for late-time acceleration and transition to phantom phase of the scalar field.
We study possible crossing of the phantom divided barrier in a Lorentz invariance violating dark energy model. Lorentz invariance violation which is achieved by introducing a vector field in the action, incorporates directly in the dynamics of the scalar field and equation of state. This interesting feature allows us to study phantom divided barrier crossing in the context of Lorentz invariance violation. We show that for suitable choice of parameter space, equation of state can cross phantom divided barrier just by one scalar field and Lorentz violating vector field controls this crossing.
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.
Lorentz-violating theories of gravity typically contain constrained vector fields. We show that the lowest-order coupling of such vectors to $\mathrm{U}(1)$-symmetric scalars can naturally give rise to baryogenesis in a manner akin to the Affleck-Dine mechanism. We calculate the cosmology of this new mechanism, demonstrating that a net $B-L$ can be generated in the early Universe, and that the resulting baryon-to-photon ratio matches that which is presently observed. We discuss constraints on the model using solar system and astrophysical tests of Lorentz violation in the gravity sector. Gener…
The correspondence between Riemann-Finsler geometries and effective field theories with spin-independent Lorentz violation is explored. We obtain the general quadratic action for effective scalar field theories in any spacetime dimension with Lorentz-violating operators of arbitrary mass dimension. Classical relativistic point-particle lagrangians are derived that reproduce the momentum-velocity and dispersion relations of quantum wave packets. The correspondence to Finsler structures is established, and some properties of the resulting Riemann-Finsler spaces are investigated. The results prov…
We discuss the impact of Lorentz violation on the cosmology. Firstly, we show that the Lorentz violation affects the dynamics of the chaotic inflationary model and gives rise to an interesting feature. Secondly, we propose the Lorentz violating DGP brane models where the Lorentz violating terms on the brane accelerate the current universe. We conjecture that the ghost disappears in the Lorentz violating DGP models.
We show that the ghost degrees of freedom of Einstein gravity with a Weyl term can be eliminated by a simple mechanism that invokes local Lorentz symmetry breaking. We demonstrate how the mechanism works in a cosmological setting. The presence of the Weyl term forces a redefinition of the quantum vacuum state of the tensor perturbations. As a consequence the amplitude of their spectrum blows up when the Lorentz-violating scale becomes comparable to the Hubble radius. Such a behaviour is in sharp contrast to what happens in standard Weyl gravity where the gravitational ghosts smoothly damp out …
We study the recently proposed Lorentz-violating dispersion relation for fermions and show that it leads to two distinct cubic operators in the momentum. We compute the leading order terms that modify the non-relativistic equations of motion and use experimental results for the hyperfine transition in the ground state of the ${}^9\textrm Be^+$ ion to bound the values of the Lorentz-violating parameters $η_1$ and $η_2$ for neutrons. The resulting bounds depend on the value of the Lorenz-violating background four-vector in the laboratory frame.
Effective field theories with explicit Lorentz violation are intimately linked to Riemann-Finsler geometry. The quadratic single-fermion restriction of the Standard-Model Extension provides a rich source of pseudo-Riemann-Finsler spacetimes and Riemann-Finsler spaces. An example is presented that is constructed from a 1-form coefficient and has Finsler structure complementary to the Randers structure.
A non-conformally invariant coupling between the inflaton and the photon in the minimal Lorentz-violating standard model extension is analyzed. For specific forms of the Lorentz-violating background tensor, the strong-coupling and backreaction problems of magnetogenesis in de Sitter inflation with scale $\sim 10^{16}$GeV are evaded, the electromagnetic-induced primordial spectra of (Gaussian and non-Gaussian) scalar and tensor curvature perturbations are compatible with cosmic microwave background observations, and the inflation-produced magnetic field directly accounts for cosmic magnetic fie…
We determine the sensitivity of a modern Michelson-Morley resonant-cavity experiment to the higher-order nonbirefringent and nondispersive coefficients of the Lorentz-violating Standard-Model Extension. Data from a recent year-long run of the experiment is used to place the first bounds on these coefficients.
We present a solution of the coupled Einstein and rank-two antisymmetric tensor field equations where Lorentz symmetry is spontaneously broken, and we discuss its observational signatures. Especially, the deflection angles have important qualitative differences between tensor and scalar monopoles. If a monopole were to be detected, it would be discriminated whether or not to correspond to a tensor one. This phenomenon might open up new direction in the search of Lorentz violation with future astrophysical observations.
The dynamics of binary pulsars can be used to test different aspects of gravitation. This is particularly important to constrain alternatives to general relativity in regimes which are not probed by other methods. In this short contribution, I will describe the case of theories of gravity without Lorentz invariance. The latter are important in the context of quantum gravity and modify the laws of gravity at basically all scales.
We have recently proposed a Lorentz-violating energy-momentum relation entailing an exact momentum cutoff and studied various physical applications of that dispersion law. By a simple phenomenological approach we here study Lorentz violation effects on early Universe and pre-Planckian cosmological radiation. In particular, we predict an effective infinite speed of light soon after the Big Bang instant, leading to a straightforward solution of the horizon and flatness problems without recourse to inflation, cosmological scalar fields or other ad hoc energy sources.
We consider the black hole dynamical evolution in the framework of a Lorentz-violating spacetime endowed with a Schwarzchild-like momentum-dependent metric. Large deviations from the Hawking-Bekenstein predictions are obtained, depending on the values of the Lorentz-violating parameter lambda introduced. A non-trivial evolution comes out, following mainly from the existence of a non-vanishing minimum mass: for large Lorentz violations, most of the black hole evaporation takes place in the initial stage, which is then followed by a stationary stage (whose duration depends on the value of lambda…
Lorentz symmetry is an important concept in modern physics. Precision pulsar timing was used to put tight constraints on the coefficients for Lorentz violation in the pure-gravity sector of the Standard-Model Extension (SME). We extend the analysis to Lorentz-violating matter-gravity couplings, utilizing three small-eccentricity relativistic neutron star (NS) -- white dwarf (WD) binaries. We obtain compelling limits on various SME coefficients related to the neutron, the proton, and the electron. These results are complementary to limits obtained from lunar laser ranging and clock experiments.
