Lorentz and CPT Violation in Scalar-Mediated Potentials

In Lorentz- and CPT-violating effective field theories involving scalar and spinor fields, there exist forms of Lorentz violation that modify only the scalar-spinor Yukawa interaction vertices. These affect low-energy fermion and antifermion scattering processes through modifications to the nonrelativistic Yukawa potentials. The modified potentials involve novel combinations of momentum, spin, and Lorentz-violating background tensors.Comment: 16 page

Consequences of Neutrino Lorentz Violation For Leptonic Meson Decays

If the observation by OPERA of apparently superluminal neutrinos is correct, the Lagrangian for second-generation leptons must break Lorentz invariance. We calculate the effects of an energy-independent change in the neutrino speed on another observable, the charged pion decay rate. The rate decreases by an factor [1 - 3/(1 - (m_mu)^2 / (m_pi) ^ 2) ( - 1)], where is the (directionally averaged) neutrino speed in the pion's rest frame. This provides a completely independent experimental observable that is sensitive to the same forms of Lorentz violation as a neutrino time of flight measurement.Comment: 10 page

Coupling Right- and Left-Handed Photons Differently to Charged Matter

We consider a modification of electrodynamics in which right- and left-circularly polarized photons are coupled to charged sources differently. Even though photon helicity is a Lorentz invariant quantity, such a modification breaks Lorentz symmetry, as well as locality. The modified theory includes novel magnetic forces between perpendicular currents. Existing data can be used to constrain the modification at approximately a 2 x 10^(-3) level.Comment: 12 page

Absence of Long-Wavelength Cerenkov Radiation With Isotropic Lorentz and CPT Violation

Modified theories of electrodynamics that include violations of Lorentz symmetry often allow for the possibility of vacuum Cerenkov radiation. This phenomenon has previously been studied in a number of Lorentz-violating theories, but none of the methods that have previously been developed are sufficient to study a theory with a timelike Chern-Simons term $k_{AF}$, because such a term may generate exponentially growing solutions to the field equations. Searching for vacuum Cerenkov radiation in a theory with a purely timelike Chern-Simons term using only elementary methods, we find that, despite the presence of the runaway modes, a charge in uniform nonrelativistic motion does not radiate energy, up to second order in the velocity.Comment: 9 page

Contributions to Pion Decay from Lorentz Violation in the Weak Sector

Lorentz violation in the weak sector would affect the beta-decay lifetimes of pions. The decay amplitude may be rendered anisotropic, but only an isotropic violation of boost invariance can affect the net lifetime in the center of mass frame. However, since the rest frames of the pions that produce the NuMI neutrino beam at Fermilab vary with the rotation of the Earth, it is possible to constrain anisotropic Lorentz violation using prior analyses of sidereal variations in the event rate at the MINOS near detector. The resulting bounds on weak-sector Lorentz violation are at the 10^(-4) level, a substantial improvement over previous results. The highly relativistic character of the pions involved is responsible for the improvement.Comment: 16 page

Modeling-Free Bounds on Nonrenormalizable Isotropic Lorentz and CPT Violation in QED

The strongest bounds on some forms of Lorentz and CPT violation come from astrophysical data, and placing such bounds may require understanding and modeling distant sources of radiation. However, it is also desirable to have bounds that do not rely on these kinds of detailed models. Bounds that do not rely on any modeling of astrophysical objects may be derived both from laboratory experiments and certain kinds of astrophysical observations. The strongest such bounds on isotropic modifications of electron, positron, and photon dispersion relations of the form E^2 = p^2 + m^ 2 + epsilon p^3 come from data on cosmological birefringence, the absence of photon decay, and radiation from lepton beams. The bounds range in strength from the 4 x 10^(-13) to 6 x 10^(-33) (GeV)^(-1) levels.Comment: New title, 12 pages, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

There is No Ambiguity in the Radiatively Induced Gravitational Chern-Simons Term

Quantum corrections to Lorentz- and CPT-violating QED in flat spacetime produce unusual radiative corrections, which can be finite but of undetermined magnitude. The corresponding radiative corrections in a gravitational theory are even stranger, since the term in the fermion action involving a preferred axial vector $b^{\mu}$ would give rise to a gravitational Chern-Simons term that is proportional $b^{\mu}$, yet which actually does not break Lorentz invariance. Initially, the coefficient of this gravitational Chern-Simons term appears to have the same ambiguity as the coefficient for the analogous term in QED. However, this puzzle is resolved by the fact that the gravitational theory has more stringent gauge invariance requirements. Lorentz symmetry in a metric theory of gravity can only be broken spontaneously, and when the vector $b^{\mu}$ arises from spontaneous symmetry breaking, these specific radiative corrections are no longer ambiguous but instead must vanish identically.Comment: 16 page

Lorentz Violation in Fermion-Antifermion Decays of Spinless Particles

If Lorentz and CPT violation exist, they could affect the decays of scalar and pseudoscalar particles. For a decay into a fermion and an antifermion (not necessarily of the same mass), both the total decay rate and the outgoing particle distribution may be modified, through interference between the conventional decay mechanism and a separate Lorentz-violating mechanism. The modifications are sensitive to forms of Lorentz violation that are otherwise rather difficult to study, since at tree level they do not affect particle propagation, but only interaction vertices. Using existing experimental data on charged pion decay, it is possible to constrain three parameters in the modified pion-muon-neutrino coupling at better than the $10^{-9}$ level; these are the first bounds on these quantities.Comment: 16 page

Bound on the Photon Charge from the Phase Coherence of Extragalactic Radiation

If the photon possessed a nonzero charge, then electromagnetic waves traveling along different paths would acquire Aharonov-Bohm phase differences. The fact that such an effect has not hindered interferometric astronomy places a bound on the photon charge estimated to be at the 10^(-32) e level if all photons have the same charge and 10^(-46) e if different photons can carry different charges.Comment: 8 pages, new bound added, version appearing in Phys. Rev. Let

No Vacuum Cerenkov Radiation Losses in the Timelike Lorentz-Violating Chern-Simons Theory

In a Lorentz- and CPT-violating modification of electrodynamics that includes a timelike Chern-Simons term, there are no energy losss through vacuum Cerenkov radiation. A charge moving with a constant velocity does not lose energy, because of an unusual cancellation. Higher frequency modes of the electromagnetic field carry away positive energy, but lower frequency modes carry away a compensating negative amount of energy.Comment: 11 page