Radiatively Induced Lorentz and Gauge Symmetry Violation in Electrodynamics with Varying alph a

Author(s)

Alejandro Ferrero
Brett David AltschulFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

A time-varying fine structure constant α(t) could give rise to Lorentz- and CPT-violating changes to the vacuum polarization, which would affect photon propagation. Such changes to the effective action can violate gauge invariance, but they are otherwise permitted. However, in the minimal theory of varying α, no such terms are generated at lowest order. At second order, vacuum polarization can generate an instability—a Lorentz-violating analogue of a negative photon mass squared −m²γ∝α(˙α2α)²log(Λ²), where Λ is the cutoff for the low-energy effective theory.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.125010

Publication Info

Published in Physical Review D, Volume 80, Issue 12, 2009.

©2009 American Physical Society

APA Citation

Ferrero, A., & Altschul, B. (2009). Radiatively induced Lorentz and gauge symmetry violation in electrodynamics with varyingα. Physical Review D, 80(12). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.80.125010