New two-sided bound on the isotropic Lorentz-violating parameter of modified Maxwell theory

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 \widetilde{\gamma}, the resulting modified-quantum-electrodynamics model involves a single dimensionless "deformation parameter," \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr}. The exact tree-level decay rates for two processes have been calculated: vacuum Cherenkov radiation p^\pm \to p^\pm \widetilde{\gamma} for the case of positive \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} and photon decay \widetilde{\gamma} \to p^+ p^- for the case of negative \widetilde{\kappa}_{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 \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} is obtained, which improves by eight orders of magnitude upon the best direct laboratory bound. The implications of this result are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, v5: published version in preprint styl

On the interaction of a single-photon wave packet with an excited atom

The interaction of a single-photon wave packet with an initially excited two-level atom in free space is studied in semiclassical and quantum approaches. It is shown that the final state of the field does not contain doubly occupied modes. The process of the atom's transition to the ground state may be accelerated, decelerated or even reversed by the incoming photon, depending on parameters. The spectrum of emitted radiation is close to the sum of the spectrum of the incoming single-photon wave packet and the natural line shape, with small and complicated deviations.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Quantum Clock Synchronization: a Multi-Party Protocol

We present a multi-party quantum clock synchronization protocol that utilizes shared prior entanglement and broadcast of classical information to synchronize spatially separated clocks. Notably, it is necessary only for any one party to publish classical information. Consequently, the efficacy of the method is independent of the relative location of the parties. The suggested protocol is robust and does not require precise sequencing of procedural steps.Comment: 3 page

Primordial Fluctuations within Teleparallelism

We study the cosmological perturbations for the possible inflation scenario in the teleparallel equivalence of general relativity specified with parallelizable topological conditions. By acquiring the identical physical observables to general relativity under the teleparallel formalism, we perform a 3+1 decomposition of the vierbein field, which can be interpreted as the time gauge fixing between coordinate and tangent frames. We also extend our discussion to the higher-order action, $f(T)$ gravity.Comment: 17 pages, no figure, revised version accepted by PR

Einstein's fluctuation formula. A historical overview

A historical overview is given on the basic results which appeared by the year 1926 concerning Einstein's fluctuation formula of black-body radiation, in the context of light-quanta and wave-particle duality. On the basis of the original publications (from Planck's derivation of the black-body spectrum and Einstein's introduction of the photons up to the results of Born, Heisenberg and Jordan on the quantization of a continuum) a comparative study is presented on the first line of thoughts that led to the concept of quanta. The nature of the particle-like fluctuations and the wave-like fluctuations are analysed by using several approaches. With the help of the classical probability theory, it is shown that the infinite divisibility of the Bose distribution leads to the new concept of classical poissonian photo-multiplets or to the binary photo-multiplets of fermionic character. As an application, Einstein's fluctuation formula is derived as a sum of fermion type fluctuations of the binary photo-multiplets.Comment: 34 page

Deformed Special Relativity with an energy barrier of a minimum speed

This research aims to introduce a new principle in the flat space-time geometry through the elimination of the classical idea of rest and by including a universal minimum limit of speed in the quantum world. This limit, unattainable by the particles, represents a preferred inertial reference frame associated with a universal background field that breaks Lorentz symmetry. There emerges a new relativistic dynamics where a minimum speed forms an inferior energy barrier. One of the interesting consequences of the existence of such a minimum speed is that it prevents the absolute zero temperature for an ultracold gas according to the third law of thermodynamics. So we will be able to provide a fundamental dynamical explanation for the third law through a connection between such a phenomenological law and the new relativistic dynamics with a minimum speed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

CMB Anisotropy of the Poincare Dodecahedron

We analyse the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) for the Poincare dodecahedron which is an example for a multi-connected spherical universe. We compare the temperature correlation function and the angular power spectrum for the Poincare dodecahedral universe with the first-year WMAP data and find that this multi-connected universe can explain the surprisingly low CMB anisotropy on large scales found by WMAP provided that the total energy density parameter Omega_tot is in the range 1.016...1.020. The ensemble average over the primordial perturbations is assumed to be the scale-invariant Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum. The circles-in-the-sky signature is studied and it is found that the signal of the six pairs of matched circles could be missed by current analyses of CMB sky maps

Gravity with de Sitter and Unitary Tangent Groups

Einstein Gravity can be formulated as a gauge theory with the tangent space respecting the Lorentz symmetry. In this paper we show that the dimension of the tangent space can be larger than the dimension of the manifold and by requiring the invariance of the theory with respect to 5d Lorentz group (de Sitter group) Einstein theory is reproduced unambiguously. The other possibility is to have unitary symmetry on a complex tangent space of the same dimension as the manifold. In this case the resultant theory is Einstein-Strauss Hermitian gravity. The tangent group is important for matter couplings. We show that in the de Sitter case the 4 dimensional space time vector and scalar are naturally unified by a hidden symmetry being components of a 5d vector in the tangent space. With a de Sitter tangent group spinors can exist only when they are made complex or taken in doublets in a way similar to N=2 supersymmetry.Comment: 23 pages, one reference added.To be published in JHE

Vacuum Energy: Myths and Reality

We discuss the main myths related to the vacuum energy and cosmological constant, such as: ``unbearable lightness of space-time''; the dominating contribution of zero point energy of quantum fields to the vacuum energy; non-zero vacuum energy of the false vacuum; dependence of the vacuum energy on the overall shift of energy; the absolute value of energy only has significance for gravity; the vacuum energy depends on the vacuum content; cosmological constant changes after the phase transition; zero-point energy of the vacuum between the plates in Casimir effect must gravitate, that is why the zero-point energy in the vacuum outside the plates must also gravitate; etc. All these and some other conjectures appear to be wrong when one considers the thermodynamics of the ground state of the quantum many-body system, which mimics macroscopic thermodynamics of quantum vacuum. In particular, in spite of the ultraviolet divergence of the zero-point energy, the natural value of the vacuum energy is comparable with the observed dark energy. That is why the vacuum energy is the plausible candidate for the dark energy.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the special issue of Int. J. Mod. Phys. devoted to dark energy and dark matter, IJMP styl