Very Special Relativity in Accelerated Frames: Non-relativistic Effects in Gravitational Spectroscopy of Ultracold Neutrons

TL;DR

This paper explores how Very Special Relativity modifies the energy spectrum of ultracold neutrons in gravitational fields, revealing potential Lorentz-violating effects detectable through gravitational spectroscopy experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of VSR effects on fermionic systems in accelerated frames, including order corrections and experimental constraints.

Findings

Leading order effects show no modification besides mass shift.

Next-to-leading order introduces anisotropic, time-dependent VSR signatures.

Derived initial constraints on neutron VSR parameters from qBounce experiment sensitivity.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the phenomenology of fermionic systems in uniform gravitational fields within the framework of Very Special Relativity (VSR). We focus on the case of gravitational spectroscopy with ultracold neutrons, explored in experiments like \emph{q}\textsc{Bounce}. Calculating the leading ($c^0$) and next-to-leading ($c^{-1}$) order corrections to the non-relativistic Hamiltonian in an accelerated frame, we obtain the perturbed fermionic energy spectrum. At leading order, we do not find any modifications except for a trivial mass shift, thus preserving the equivalence between inertial and gravitational mass and particle-antiparticle sectors. The next-to-leading order corrections, instead, introduce time-dependent anisotropic contributions depending on the preferred spatial direction in VSR, and can then be used to probe novel Lorentz-violating signatures. Taking \emph{q}\textsc{Bounce} sensitivity as a benchmark, we derive a first rough constraint for the neutron VSR parameter. Finally, we suggest alternative spin-flipping setups to better probe VSR effects and foresee potential future research directions.