Space-Time Foam Effects on Particle Interactions and the GZK Cutoff

TL;DR

This paper explores how space-time foam modeled via non-critical Liouville-string theory affects particle interactions, energy conservation, and the GZK cutoff, suggesting potential modifications to high-energy cosmic ray physics.

Contribution

It introduces a model of space-time foam affecting particle interactions and proposes modifications to energy conservation and the GZK cutoff in high-energy cosmic rays.

Findings

Momentum is conserved during propagation and on average during interactions.

Energy is conserved on average during propagation but not during interactions.

Potential modifications to the GZK cutoff and relativistic momentum-energy relations.

Abstract

Modelling space-time foam using a non-critical Liouville-string model for the quantum fluctuations of D branes with recoil, we discuss the issues of momentum and energy conservation in particle propagation and interactions. We argue that momentum should be conserved exactly during propagation and on the average during interactions, but that energy is conserved only on the average during propagation and is in general not conserved during particle interactions, because of changes in the background metric. We discuss the possible modification of the GZK cutoff on high-energy cosmic rays, in the light of this energy non-conservation as well as the possible modification of the usual relativistic momentum-energy relation.