Top Hadrons in Lorentz-Violating Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper explores how Lorentz symmetry violation in the top quark sector could lead to stable top-flavored hadrons and uses astrophysical gamma-ray observations to constrain such violations.

Contribution

It introduces the possibility of stable top-flavored hadrons due to Lorentz violation and derives astrophysical constraints on Lorentz violation coefficients in the top quark sector.

Findings

Constraints on Lorentz violation coefficients at the ~10^{-4} level.

Implications for stability of top-flavored hadrons.

Potential observable effects in high-energy astrophysics.

Abstract

If there is Lorentz symmetry violation in the $t$ quark sector of the standard model, changes to particles' dispersion relations might allow for the existence of stable top-flavored hadrons. Observations of the survival of high-energy $\gamma$-rays over astrophysical distances can be used to place one-sided constraints on certain linear combinations of Lorentz violation coefficients in the $t$ sector at the $\sim 10^{-4}$ level of precision.