Lorentz Invariance and the Cosmological Constant

TL;DR

The paper explores how string field theory solutions could cause spontaneous Lorentz invariance breaking, leading to new tensor-matter interactions that align with current experimental constraints and could influence cosmological vacuum energy.

Contribution

It proposes a mechanism linking Lorentz symmetry breaking in string theory to observable cosmological effects and estimates the interaction range consistent with experimental bounds.

Findings

Lorentz invariance may be spontaneously broken in string field theory.

New tensor-matter interactions could have a range of about 10^{-4} meters.

Violations are consistent with current experimental limits.

Abstract

Non-trivial solutions in string field theory may lead to the spontaneous breaking of Lorentz invariance and to new tensor-matter interactions. It is argued that requiring the contribution of the vacuum expectation values of Lorentz tensors to account for the vacuum energy up to the level that $\Omega_{0}^{\Lambda} = 0.5$ implies the new interactions range is $\lambda \sim 10^{-4} m$. These conjectured violations of the Lorentz symmetry are consistent with the most stringent experimental limits.