130 research outputs found
Probing Lorentz and CPT violation with space-based experiments
Space-based experiments offer sensitivity to numerous unmeasured effects
involving Lorentz and CPT violation. We provide a classification of clock
sensitivities and present explicit expressions for time variations arising in
such experiments from nonzero coefficients in the Lorentz- and CPT-violating
Standard-Model Extension.Comment: 15 page
Threshold analyses and Lorentz violation
In the context of threshold investigations of Lorentz violation, we discuss
the fundamental principle of coordinate invariance, the role of an effective
dynamical framework, and the conditions of positivity and causality. Our
analysis excludes a variety of previously considered Lorentz-breaking
parameters and opens an avenue for viable dispersion-relation investigations of
Lorentz violation.Comment: 9 page
Overview of the SME: Implications and Phenomenology of Lorentz Violation
The Standard Model Extension (SME) provides the most general
observer-independent field theoretical framework for investigations of Lorentz
violation. The SME lagrangian by definition contains all Lorentz-violating
interaction terms that can be written as observer scalars and that involve
particle fields in the Standard Model and gravitational fields in a generalized
theory of gravity. This includes all possible terms that could arise from a
process of spontaneous Lorentz violation in the context of a more fundamental
theory, as well as terms that explicitly break Lorentz symmetry. An overview of
the SME is presented, including its motivations and construction. Some of the
theoretical issues arising in the case of spontaneous Lorentz violation are
discussed, including the question of what happens to the Nambu-Goldstone modes
when Lorentz symmetry is spontaneously violated and whether a Higgs mechanism
can occur. A minimal version of the SME in flat Minkowski spacetime that
maintains gauge invariance and power-counting renormalizability is used to
search for leading-order signals of Lorentz violation. Recent Lorentz tests in
QED systems are examined, including experiments with photons, particle and
atomic experiments, proposed experiments in space and experiments with a
spin-polarized torsion pendulum.Comment: 40 pages, Talk presented at Special Relativity: Will it Survive the
Next 100 Years? Potsdam, Germany, February, 200
A tale of two capitalisms: preliminary spatial and historical comparisons of homicide rates in Western Europe and the USA
This article examines comparative homicide rates in the United States and Western Europe in an era of increasingly globalized neoliberal economics. The main finding of this preliminary analysis is that historical and spatial correlations between distinct forms of political economy and homicide rates are consistent enough to suggest that social democratic regimes are more successful at fostering the socio-cultural conditions necessary for reduced homicide rates. Thus Western Europe and all continents and nations should approach the importation of American neo-liberal economic policies with extreme caution. The article concludes by suggesting that the indirect but crucial causal connection between political economy and homicide rates, prematurely pushed into the background of criminological thought during the ‘cultural turn’, should be returned to the foreground
Lorentz and CPT Violation in Neutrinos
A general formalism is presented for violations of Lorentz and CPT symmetry
in the neutrino sector. The effective hamiltonian for neutrino propagation in
the presence of Lorentz and CPT violation is derived, and its properties are
studied. Possible definitive signals in existing and future
neutrino-oscillation experiments are discussed. Among the predictions are
direction-dependent effects, including neutrino-antineutrino mixing, sidereal
and annual variations, and compass asymmetries. Other consequences of Lorentz
and CPT violation involve unconventional energy dependences in oscillation
lengths and mixing angles. A variety of simple models both with and without
neutrino masses are developed to illustrate key physical effects. The
attainable sensitivities to coefficients for Lorentz violation in the
Standard-Model Extension are estimated for various types of experiments. Many
experiments have potential sensitivity to Planck-suppressed effects, comparable
to the best tests in other sectors. The lack of existing experimental
constraints, the wide range of available coefficient space, and the variety of
novel effects imply that some or perhaps even all of the existing data on
neutrino oscillations might be due to Lorentz and CPT violation.Comment: 25 pages REVTe
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