When identical particles cease to be indistinguishable: violation of statistics in quantum spacetime

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum gravity and noncommutative spacetime can deform particle statistics, leading to potential violations of the Pauli principle, and develops a relativistic quantum field theory to analyze these effects.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized quantum field theory with quon-like deformations that allow non-involutive particle exchange, extending twisted statistics in a relativistic framework.

Findings

Pure twisted statistics predicts forbidden atomic transitions incompatible with experiments.

Quon deformations suppress violations by the noncommutativity scale, contingent on superselection rule violations.

The theory suggests possible breakdown of particle indistinguishability, motivating experimental tests of the Pauli principle.

Abstract

Quantum gravity may modify the fundamental symmetries that govern identical particles. In particular, noncommutative spacetime frameworks predict deformations of Bose and Fermi statistics. Here we develop a relativistic quantum field theory based on the most general oscillator algebra compatible with $\theta$-deformed Poincar\'e symmetry. This construction generalizes twisted statistics to a class of quon-like deformations allowing non-involutive particle exchange. We show that the resulting theory is consistent at both the free and interacting levels and derive its implications for atomic systems. Purely twisted statistics predicts Pauli-forbidden atomic transitions at rates incompatible with experiments. By contrast, a class of quon deformations suppresses such processes by powers of the noncommutativity scale, but only if superselection rules between permutation-symmetry sectors are violated. This implies an effective breakdown of particle indistinguishability and provides theoretical motivation for high-precision experimental tests of the Pauli exclusion principle.