AUGER-HiRes results and models of Lorentz symmetry violation

Abstract

The implications of AUGER and HiRes results for patterns of Lorentz symmetry violation (LSV) are examined, focusing on weak doubly special relativity (WDSR). If the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff is definitely confirmed, the mass composition of the highest-energy cosmic-ray spectrum will be a crucial issue to draw precise theoretical consequences from the experimental results. Assuming that the observed flux suppression is due to the GZK mechanism, data will allow in principle to exclude a significant range of LSV models and parameters, but other important possibilities are expected to remain open : Lorentz breaking can be weaker or occur at a scale higher than the Planck scale, unconventional LSV effects can fake the GZK cutoff, threshold phenomena can delay its appearance... Space experiments appear to be needed to further test special relativity. We also examine the consequences of AUGER and HiRes data for superbradyons. If such superluminal ultimate constituents of matter exist in our Universe, they may provide new forms of dark matter and dark energy.

Talk given at the CRIS (Cosmic Ray International Seminar), La Malfa, September 15-19, 2008. To be published in the Proceedings

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Possible cosmogenic neutrino constraints on Planck-scale Lorentz violation
• Ultra high energy photons as probes of Lorentz symmetry violations in stringy space-time foam models
• Quantum Gravity phenomenology: achievements and challenges
• Cosmic rays and tests of fundamental principles
• Renormalization group flows in a Lifshitz-like four fermi model
• Superbradyons and some possible dark matter signatures
• Preon models, relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology (I)
• Lorentz violation, vacuum, cosmic rays, superbradyons and Pamir data
• Probes for String-Inspired Foam, Lorentz, and CPT Violations in Astrophysics