Background Dependent Lorentz Violation: Natural Solutions to the Theoretical Challenges of the OPERA Experiment

TL;DR

This paper proposes a background-dependent Lorentz violation framework to explain OPERA results and evade astrophysical constraints, offering models from effective field theory and string theory that address theoretical challenges and predict testable photon velocity variations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel background-dependent Lorentz violation model that naturally avoids existing constraints and explains OPERA results, integrating effective field theory and string theory approaches.

Findings

The model can explain superluminal neutrino observations without conflicting with astrophysical constraints.

It provides solutions to theoretical issues like Bremsstrahlung effects and pion decay constraints.

Photon velocities depend on energy and can be tested experimentally.

Abstract

To explain both the OPERA experiment and all the known phenomenological constraints/observations on Lorentz violation, the Background Dependent Lorentz Violation (BDLV) has been proposed. We study the BDLV in a model independent way, and conjecture that there may exist a "Dream Special Relativity Theory", where all the Standard Model (SM) particles can be subluminal due to the background effects. Assuming that the Lorentz violation on the Earth is much larger than those on the interstellar scale, we automatically escape all the astrophysical constraints on Lorentz violation. For the BDLV from the effective field theory, we present a simple model and discuss the possible solutions to the theoretical challenges of the OPERA experiment such as the Bremsstrahlung effects for muon neutrinos and the pion decays. Also, we address the Lorentz violation constraints from the LEP and KamLAMD experiments. For the BDLV from the Type IIB string theory with D3-branes and D7-branes, we point out that the D3-branes are flavour blind, and all the SM particles are the conventional particles as in the traditional SM when they do not interact with the D3-branes. Thus, we not only can naturally avoid all the known phenomenological constraints on Lorentz violation, but also can naturally explain all the theoretical challenges. Interestingly, the energy dependent photon velocities may be tested at the experiments.