Title:
Exploring Lorentz invariance violation with astrophysical phenomena
Abstract:
The possibility of violation of Lorentz invariance for high-energy particles arises in various quantum-gravity theories and approaches for the extension of Special Relativity. Since the energies that may induce considerable Lorentz invariance violating effects are very high, astrophysical phenomena are the natural candidates for obtaining evidence or limits for this possibility.
I demonstrate two practical methods, which can be used to generically test Lorentz invariance violation at the relevant energy scales. One method deals with the speed of ~PeV neutrinos from GRBs, which should soon be detected and identified by IceCube. A time-of-flight analysis will compare their arrival times with those of lower-energy photons. The second method inspects the validity of the Lorentz symmetry by examining the absorbed spectra of cosmological TeV gamma-ray sources - searching for abnormalities in the interaction of energetic gamma-rays with extra-galactic background photons. I also describe a gedanken experiment that allowed us to derive conditions for logically consistent Lorentz-violating theories.