Low Energy Lorentz Violation in Polymer Quantization Revisited

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that low energy Lorentz violation persists in a broader class of polymer quantized scalar field theories where the polymer scale varies with momentum, and calculates the associated radiation rates.

Contribution

It extends previous work by proving Lorentz violation at low energies for theories with momentum-dependent polymer scales and derives modified radiation rates.

Findings

Lorentz violation persists in variable polymer scale theories

Derived modified radiation rates for these theories

Confirmed robustness of low energy Lorentz violation prediction

Abstract

In previous work, it had been shown that polymer quantized scalar field theory predicts that even an inertial observer can experience spontaneous excitations. This prediction was shown to hold at low energies. However, in these papers it was assumed that the polymer scale is constant. But it is possible to relax this condition and obtain a larger class of theories where the polymer scale is a function of momentum. Does the prediction of low energy Lorentz violation hold for all of these theories? In this paper we prove that it does. We also obtain the modified rates of radiation for some of these theories.