Lorentz Invariance Violation and Chemical Composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

Abstract

Motivated by experimental indications of a significant presence of heavy nuclei in the cosmic ray flux at ultra high energies ($\gtrsim 10^{19} \eV$), we consider the effects of Planck scale suppressed Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) on the propagation of cosmic ray nuclei. In particular we focus on LIV effects on the photodisintegration of nuclei onto the background radiation fields. After a general discussion of the behavior of the relevant quantities, we apply our formalism to a simplified model where the LIV parameters of the various nuclei are assumed to kinematically result from a single LIV parameter for the constituent nucleons, $\eta$, and we derive constraints on $\eta$. Assuming a nucleus of a particular species to be actually present at $10^{20}$ eV the following constraints can be placed: $-3\times 10^{-2}\lesssim \eta \lesssim 4$ for ${}^{56}$Fe, $-2\times 10^{-3}\lesssim \eta \lesssim 3\times 10^{-2}$ for ${}^{16}$O and $-7\times 10^{-5}\lesssim \eta \lesssim 1\times 10^{-4}$ for ${}^4$He, respectively.

v1: 20 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures. v2: added minor comments. Accepted by JCAP

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• Very Special Relativity
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• Muon content of ultra-high-energy air showers: Yakutsk data versus simulations
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• Have we tested Lorentz invariance enough?
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• Loop Quantum Gravity Phenomenology: Linking Loops to Observational Physics
• Phenomenological Effects of CPT and Lorentz Invariance Violation in Particle and Astroparticle Physics
• Quiver Yangians and Crystal Melting: A Concise Summary
• Simulating Electromagnetic Cascades with Lorentz Invariance Violation
• Spectra for Reactions in Astrophysical Electromagnetic Cascades with Lorentz Invariance Violation: The Vacuum Cherenkov Effect
• Astroparticle Physics Tests of Lorentz Invariance Violation