Extending the Euler-Heisenberg action to include effects of local Lorentz-symmetry violating backgrounds
This work sets out to compute the corrections to the Euler-Heisenberg effective action that arise from spacetime-dependent background anisotropies that violate Lorentz symmetry. To accomplish our task, we evaluate the functional determinant of the modified Dirac operator using the spectral regularization method. Within the framework of the Standard Model Extension (SME), these Lorentz-violating parameters correspond to the coefficients $m_5(x)$, $a_μ(x)$, and $b_μ(x)$. The corrected effective action is attained up to the second-order in the background parameters. Our results indicate a violation of Furry's theorem at second-order for specific C-odd combinations of these parameters, in agreement with previous analyses based on explicit Feynman diagram calculations in scenarios with Lorentz-symmetry violation. In the kinetic (bilinear) piece of the effective action, non-dynamical axion-like terms emerge, resembling structures commonly encountered in condensed-matter systems, such as Weyl semimetals. We show how this procedure modifies the Maxwell equations, from which we present both the corresponding (non-)conservation of the energy-momentum tensor and the wave equation. We also notice that the vacuum behaves as an inhomogeneous medium, and compute the local dispersion relation by working in the eikonal approximation. As a result of the spacetime-dependence of the background, there appear imaginary contributions in the dispersion relation and, consequently, the wave amplitudes may be amplified or attenuated, which expresses the energy-momentum exchange between the waves and the background.