arXiv subjects

Giovanni Amelino-Camelia

Publications and source records attributed to Giovanni Amelino-Camelia.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

OPERA neutrinos and relativity

In a recent study, Cohen and Glashow argue that superluminal neutrinos of the type recently reported by OPERA should be affected by anomalous Cherenkov-like processes. This causes them to loose much of their energy before reaching the OPERA detectors. Related concerns were reported also by Gonzalez-Mestres and Bi et. al., who argued that pions cannot decay to superluminal neutrinos over part of the energy range studied by OPERA. We observe here that these arguments are set within a framework in which Lorentz symmetry is broken, by the presence of a preferred frame. We further show that these anomalous processes are forbidden if Lorentz symmetry is instead "deformed", preserving the relativity of inertial frames. These deformations add non-linear terms to energy momentum relations, conservation laws and Lorentz transformations in a way that is consistent with the relativity of inertial observers.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

$κ$-Poincaré phase space: speed of massless particles and relativity of spacetime locality

The study of phase-space constructions based on the properties of the $κ$-Poincaré Hopf algebra has been a very active area, mostly because of its possible applications in the phenomenology of Planck-scale-induced momentum dependence of the speed of ultrarelativistic particles. We here summarize, with emphasis on the emerging relativity of spacetime locality, some results relevant for this research program that were recently reported in arXiv:1006.2126 (PhysRevLett106,071301) arXiv:1102.4637 (PhysLettB700,150) and arXiv:1107.1724 .

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Taming nonlocality in theories with Planck-scale-deformed Lorentz symmetry

We report a general analysis of worldlines for theories with deformed relativistic symmetries and momentum dependence of the speed of photons. Our formalization is faithful to Einstein's program, with spacetime points viewed as an abstraction of physical events. The emerging picture imposes the renunciation of the idealization of absolutely coincident events, but is free from some pathologies which had been previously conjectured.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Third road to the OPERA: a tunnel after all?

The debate on OPERA focused on two extremes: either "OPERA is wrong" or our formulation of the laws of physics needs a major overhaul. I here argue that some effort should be directed toward manifestations of laws that are already known, but whose implications are poorly understood in OPERA-type contexts. My preferred example of this sort is that the OPERA result might be the first observation of a previously unnoticed effect, belonging to a family of effects which includes those responsible for the well-known peculiar properties of the "tunneling time". Tentative support for this specific hypothesis comes from the presence of evanescence and "postselection", and the observation that the fraction of neutrinos absorbed in rock on the way from CERN to LNGS is of a few parts in $10^5$, i.e. comparable to the fraction of the overall travel time by which OPERA neutrinos are found to reach LNGS earlier than expected. This leads me to stress that the OPERA result is still consistent with subluminality of a suitably "postselection-corrected" velocity. Adopting the popular (but here disfavored) interpretation of the OPERA result as a "signal velocity" one could obtain superluminal values of the postselection-corrected velocity in some technologically feasible OPERA-like setups, a prediction which I propose to test. I also propose a semi-heuristic formula for the "rock dwell time" and find that it gives a result in rough agreement with the OPERA travel-time measurements. This suggests that effects similar to the ones found for OPERA's muon neutrinos should also be found, but with tangibly different magnitude, for muon anti-neutrinos under similar experimental conditions. And I argue that, whether or not they end up being relevant for the OPERA anomaly, the effects here considered should be significant in the Planck-scale realm.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Particle-dependent deformations of Lorentz symmetry

I here investigate what is arguably the most significant residual challenge for the proposal of phenomenologically viable "DSR deformations" of relativistic kinematics, which concerns the description of composite particles, such as atoms. In some approaches to the formalization of possible scenarios for DSR-deformation of Lorentz symmetry it emerges that composite particles should have relativistic properties different from the ones of their constituent "fundamental particles", but these previous results provided no clue as to how the mismatch of relativistic properties could be consistently implemented. I show that it is possible to implement a fully consistent DSR-relativistic description of kinematics endowing different types of particles with suitably different deformed-Lorentz-symmetry properties. I also contemplate the possibility that some types of particles (or macroscopic bodies) behave according to completely undeformed special relativity, which in particular might apply to the DSR description of the macroscopic bodies that constitute measuring devices ("observers"). The formalization is also applicable to cases where different fundamental particles have different relativistic properties, leading to a type of phenomenology which I illustrate by considering possible applications to the ongoing analyses of the "Lorentz-symmetry anomaly" that was recently tentatively reported by the OPERA collaboration. Some of the new elements here introduced in the formulation of relativistic kinematics appear to also provide the starting point for the development of a correspondingly novel mathematical formulation of spacetime-symmetry algebras.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Weakness of accelerator bounds on electron superluminality without a preferred frame

The reference laboratory bounds on superluminality of the electron are obtained from the absence of in-vacuo Cherenkov processes and the determinations of synchrotron radiated power for LEP electrons. It is usually assumed that these analyses establish the validity of a standard special-relativistic description of the electron with accuracy of at least a few parts in $10^{14}$, and in particular this is used to exclude electron superluminality with such an accuracy. We observe that these bounds rely crucially on the availability of a preferred frame. In-vacuo-Cherenkov processes are automatically forbidden in any theory with "deformed Lorentz symmetry", relativistic theories that, while different from Special Relativity, preserve the relativity of inertial frames. Determinations of the synchrotron radiated power can be used to constrain the possibility of Lorentz-symmetry deformation, but provide rather weak bounds, which in particular for electron superluminality we establish to afford us no more constraining power than for an accuracy of a few parts in $10^4$. We argue that this observation can have only a limited role in the ongoing effort of analysis of the anomaly tentatively reported by the OPERA collaboration, but we stress that it could provide a valuable case study for assessing the limitations of "indirect" tests of fundamental laws of physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

UV and IR quantum-spacetime effects for the Chandrasekhar model

We modify the Chandrasekhar model of white dwarfs by introducing novel momentum-space features that characterize the analysis of some quantum-spacetime scenarios. We find that the rather standard ultraviolet effects of spacetime quantization can only be significant in a regime where the Chandrasekhar model anyway lacks any contact with observations. But a new class of quantum-spacetime effects inspired by the mechanism of "ultraviolet/infrared mixing" could be relevant for white dwarfs whose mass is roughly half the mass of the Sun, some of which are described in the literature as "strange white dwarfs". We also offer a preliminary argument suggesting that Planck-scale (ultraviolet) effects could be significant in cases where ultra-high densities are present, even when the relevant star is still gigantic in Planck-length units.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

On the fate of Lorentz symmetry in relative-locality momentum spaces

The most studied doubly-special-relativity scenarios, theories with both the speed-of-light scale and a length/inverse-momentum scale as non-trivial relativistic invariants, have concerned the possibility of enforcing relativistically some nonlinear laws on momentum space. For the "relative-locality framework" recently proposed in arXiv:1101.0931 a central role is played by nonlinear laws on momentum space, with the guiding principle that they should provide a characterization of the geometry of momentum space. Building on previous doubly-special-relativity results I here identify a criterion for establishing whether or not a given geometry of the relative-locality momentum space is "DSR compatible", i.e. compatible with an observer-independent formulation of theories on that momentum space. I find that given some chosen parametrization of momentum-space geometry the criterion takes the form of an elementary algorithm. I show that relative-locality momentum spaces that fail my criterion definitely "break" Lorentz invariance, i.e. theories on such momentum spaces necessarily are observer-dependent "ether" theories. By working out a few examples I provide evidence that when the criterion is instead satisfied one does manage to produce a relativistic formulation. The examples I use to illustrate the applicability of my criterion also have some intrinsic interest, including two particularly noteworthy cases of $κ$-Poincaré-inspired momentum spaces.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

OPERA-reassessing data on the energy dependence of the speed of neutrinos

We offer a preliminary exploration of the two sides of the challenge provided by the recent OPERA data on superluminal neutrinos. On one side we stress that some aspects of this result are puzzling even from the perspective of the wild quantum-gravity literature, where arguments in favor of the possibility of superluminal propagation have been presented, but not considering the possibility of such a sizeable effect for neutrinos of such low energies. We feel this must encourage particularly severe scrutiny of the OPERA result. On the other side, we notice that the OPERA result is reasonably consistent with $μ$-neutrino-speed data previously obtained at FERMILAB, reported in papers of 2007 and 1979. And it is intriguing that these FERMILAB79 and FERMILAB07 results, when combined with the new OPERA result, in principle provide a window on $μ$-neutrino speeds at different energies broad enough to compare alternative phenomenological models. We test the discriminating power of such an approach by using as illustrative examples the case of special-relativistic tachyons, the case of "Coleman-Glashow-type" momentum-independent violations of the special-relativistic speed law, and the cases of linear and quadratic energy dependence of the speed of ultrarelativistic muon neutrinos. Even just using $μ$-neutrino data in the range from $\sim$ 3 GeVs to $\sim$ 200 GeVs the special-relativistic tachyon and the quadratic-dependence case are clearly disfavoured. The linear-dependence case gives a marginally consistent picture and the Coleman-Glashow scenario fits robustly the data. We also comment on Supernova 1987a and its relevance for consideration of other neutrino species, also in relation with some scenarios that appeared in the large-extra-dimension literature.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Modeling transverse relative locality

We investigate some aspects of relativistic classical theories with "relative locality", in which pairs of events established to be coincident by nearby observers may be described as non-coincident by distant observers. While previous studies focused mainly on the case of longitudinal relative locality, where the effect occurs along the direction connecting the distant observer to the events, we here focus on transverse relative locality, in which instead the effect is found in a direction orthogonal to the one connecting the distant observer to the events. Our findings suggest that, at least for theories of free particles such as the one in arXiv:1006.2126, transverse relative locality is as significant as longitudinal relative locality both conceptually and quantitatively. And we observe that "dual gravity lensing", first discussed in arXiv:1103.5626, can be viewed as one of two components of transverse relative locality. We also speculate about a type of spacetime noncommutativity for which transverse relative locality could be particularly significant.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Relative-locality distant observers and the phenomenology of momentum-space geometry

We study the translational invariance of the relative-locality framework proposed in arXiv:1101.0931, which had been previously established only for the case of a single interaction. We provide an explicit example of boundary conditions at endpoints of worldlines, which indeed ensures the desired translational invariance for processes involving several interactions, even when some of the interactions are causally connected (particle exchange). We illustrate the properties of the associated relativistic description of distant observers within the example of a $κ$-Poincaré-inspired momentum-space geometry, with de Sitter metric and parallel transport governed by a non-metric and torsionful connection. We find that in such a theory simultaneously-emitted massless particles do not reach simultaneously a distant detector, as expected in light of the findings of arXiv:1103.5626 on the implications of non-metric connections. We also show that the theory admits a free-particle limit, where the relative-locality results of arXiv:1102.4637 are reproduced. We establish that the torsion of the $κ$-Poincaré connection introduces a small (but observably-large) dependence of the time of detection, for simultaneously-emitted particles, on some properties of the interactions producing the particles at the source.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Using CMB data to constrain non-isotropic Planck-scale modifications to Electrodynamics

We develop a method to constrain non-isotropic features of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization, of a type expected to arise in some models describing quantum gravity effects on light propagation. We describe the expected signatures of this kind of anomalous light propagation on CMB photons, showing that it will produce a non-isotropic birefringence effect, i.e. a rotation of the CMB polarization direction whose observed amount depends in a peculiar way on the observation direction. We also show that the sensitivity levels expected for CMB polarization studies by the \emph{Planck} satellite are sufficient for testing these effects if, as assumed in the quantum-gravity literature, their magnitude is set by the minute Planck length.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Relative locality: A deepening of the relativity principle

We describe a recently introduced principle of relative locality which we propose governs a regime of quantum gravitational phenomena accessible to experimental investigation. This regime comprises phenomena in which $\hbar$ and $G_N$ may be neglected, while their ratio, the Planck mass $M_p =\sqrt{\hbar / G_N}$, is important. We propose that $M_p$ governs the scale at which momentum space may have a curved geometry. We find that there are striking consequences for the concept of locality. The description of events in spacetime now depends on the energy used to probe it. But there remains an invariant description of physics in phase space. There is furthermore a reasonable expectation that the geometry of momentum space can be measured experimentally using astrophysical observations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Relative locality and the soccer ball problem

We consider the behavior of macroscopic bodies within the framework of relative locality, which is a recent proposal for Planck scale modifications of the relativistic dynamics of particles which are described as arising from deformations in the geometry of momentum space. These lead to the addition of non-linear terms to the energy-momentum relations and conservation laws, which are suppressed by powers of ratio between the energy E of the particles involved and the Planck mass M_P. We consider and resolve a common objection against such proposals, which is that, even if the corrections are small for elementary particles in current experiments, they are huge when applied to composite systems such as soccer balls, planets and stars, with energies E_{macro} much larger than M_P. We show that this "soccer-ball problem" does not arise within the framework of relative locality, because the non-linear effects for the dynamics of a composite system with N elementary particles appear at most of order E_{macro}/ N M_{P}.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Speed of particles and a relativity of locality in $κ$-Minkowski quantum spacetime

The last decade of research on $κ$-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime has been strongly characterized by a controversy concerning the speed of propagation of massless particles. Most arguments suggested that this speed should depend on the momentum of the particle strongly enough to be of interest for some ongoing experimental studies. But the only explicit derivations of worldlines in $κ$-Minkowski predicted no momentum dependence for the speed of massless particles. We return to this controversy equipped with the recent understanding (arXiv:1006.2126, arXiv:1007.0718, arXiv:1008.2962, arXiv:1101.0931) that in some quantum spacetimes coincidences of events assessed by an observer who is distant from the events can be artifactual, and particularly Smolin's thesis (arXiv:1007.0718) that $κ$-Minkowski should be an example of such a spacetime. We therefore set up our investigation in such a way that we never rely on the assessment of coincidences of events by distant observers. This allows us to verify explicitly that in $κ$-Minkowski simultaneously-emitted massless particles of different momentum are detected at different times, and establish a linear dependence of the detection times on momentum.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

The principle of relative locality

We propose a deepening of the relativity principle according to which the invariant arena for non-quantum physics is a phase space rather than spacetime. Descriptions of particles propagating and interacting in spacetimes are constructed by observers, but different observers, separated from each other by translations, construct different spacetime projections from the invariant phase space. Nonetheless, all observers agree that interactions are local in the spacetime coordinates constructed by observers local to them. This framework, in which absolute locality is replaced by relative locality, results from deforming momentum space, just as the passage from absolute to relative simultaneity results from deforming the linear addition of velocities. Different aspects of momentum space geometry, such as its curvature, torsion and non-metricity, are reflected in different kinds of deformations of the energy-momentum conservation laws. These are in principle all measurable by appropriate experiments. We also discuss a natural set of physical hypotheses which singles out the cases of momentum space with a metric compatible connection and constant curvature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Modifications to Lorentz invariant dispersion in relatively boosted frames

We investigate the implications of energy-dependence of the speed of photons, one of the candidate effects of quantum-gravity theories that has been most studied recently, from the perspective of observations in different reference frames. We examine how a simultaneous burst of photons would be measured by two observers with a relative velocity, establishing some associated conditions for the consistency of theories. For scenarios where the Lorentz transformations remain valid these consistency conditions allow us to characterize the violations of Lorentz symmetry through an explicit description of the modification of the quantum-gravity scale in boosted frames with respect to its definition in a preferred frame. When applied to relativistic scenarios with a deformation of Lorentz invariance that preserves the equivalence of inertial observers, we find an insightful characterization of the necessity to adopt in such frameworks non-classical features of spacetime geometry, e.g. events that are at the same spacetime point for one observer cannot be considered at the same spacetime point for other observers. Our findings also suggest that, at least in principle (and perhaps one day even in practice), measurements of the dispersion of photons in relatively boosted frames can be particularly valuable for the purpose of testing these scenarios.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2010

Conserved charges and quantum-group transformations in noncommutative field theories

The recently-developed techniques of Noether analysis of the quantum-group spacetime symmetries of some noncommutative field theories rely on the {\it ad hoc} introduction of some peculiar auxiliary transformation parameters, which appear to have no role in the structure of the quantum group. We here show that it is possible to set up the Noether analysis directly in terms of the quantum-group symmetry transformations, and we therefore establish more robustly the attribution of the conserved charges to the symmetries of interest. We also characterize the concept of "time independence" (as needed for conserved charges) in a way that is robust enough to be applicable even to theories with space/time noncommutativity, where it might have appeared that any characterization of time independence should be vulnerable to changes of ordering convention.

hep-th↗