Velocity in Lorentz-Violating Fermion Theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates how velocity behaves in Lorentz-violating fermionic theories, deriving new expressions and analyzing effects on wave packet dynamics and spin structure within the minimal standard model extension.

Contribution

It provides novel formulas for velocity in Lorentz-violating fermion theories and explores their implications on wave packet evolution and spin properties.

Findings

Generic eigenstates may lack well-defined velocities

Lorentz violation modifies wave packet spreading

Altered spin structure in wave functions

Abstract

We consider the role of the velocity in Lorentz-violating fermionic quantum theory, especially emphasizing the nonrelativistic regime. Information about the velocity will be important for the kinematical analysis of scattering and other problems. Working within the minimal standard model extension, we derive new expressions for the velocity. We find that generic momentum and spin eigenstates may not have well-defined velocities. We also demonstrate how several different techniques may be used to shed light on different aspects of the problem. A relativistic operator analysis allows us to study the behavior of the Lorentz-violating Zitterbewegung. Alternatively, by studying the time evolution of Gaussian wave packets, we find that there are Lorentz-violating modifications to the wave packet spreading and the spin structure of the wave function.