Restrictions from Lorentz invariance violation on cosmic ray propagation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how violations of Lorentz invariance affect high-energy cosmic ray propagation, deriving limits on violation scales and showing potential impacts on cosmic ray attenuation processes.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Lorentz invariance violation can mimic certain particle decay effects and establishes constraints on violation scales using cosmic ray photon observations.

Findings

Stringent limits on Lorentz violation scale from gamma telescope observations

Lorentz violation can suppress cosmic ray attenuation processes at high energies

Vacuum Cherenkov radiation effects are reproduced by Lorentz violation models

Abstract

Lorentz Invariance Violation introduced as a generic modification to particle dispersion relations is used to study high energy cosmic ray attenuation processes. It is shown to reproduce the same physical effects for vacuum Cherenkov radiation, as in some particular models with spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry. This approximation is also implemented for the study of photon decay in vacuum, where stringent limits to the violation scale are derived from the direct observation of very high energy cosmic ray photon events on gamma telescopes. Photo production processes by cosmic ray primaries on photon background are also addressed, to show that Lorentz violation may turn off this attenuation process at energies above a well defined secondary threshold.