English

Standard Model in multiscale theories and observational constraints

High Energy Physics - Theory 2016-08-30 v4 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We construct and analyze the Standard Model of electroweak and strong interactions in multiscale spacetimes with (i) weighted derivatives and (ii) qq-derivatives. Both theories can be formulated in two different frames, called fractional and integer picture. By definition, the fractional picture is where physical predictions should be made. (i) In the theory with weighted derivatives, it is shown that gauge invariance and the requirement of having constant masses in all reference frames make the Standard Model in the integer picture indistinguishable from the ordinary one. Experiments involving only weak and strong forces are insensitive to a change of spacetime dimensionality also in the fractional picture, and only the electromagnetic and gravitational sectors can break the degeneracy. For the simplest multiscale measures with only one characteristic time, length and energy scale tt_*, \ell_* and EE_*, we compute the Lamb shift in the hydrogen atom and constrain the multiscale correction to the ordinary result, getting the absolute upper bound t<1023st_*<10^{-23}\,{\rm s}. For the natural choice α0=1/2\alpha_0=1/2 of the fractional exponent in the measure, this bound is strengthened to t<1029st_*<10^{-29}\,{\rm s}, corresponding to <1020m\ell_*<10^{-20}\,{\rm m} and E>28TeVE_*>28\,{\rm TeV}. Stronger bounds are obtained from the measurement of the fine-structure constant. (ii) In the theory with qq-derivatives, considering the muon decay rate and the Lamb shift in light atoms, we obtain the independent absolute upper bounds t<1013st_* < 10^{-13}{\rm s} and E>35MeVE_*>35\,\text{MeV}. For α0=1/2\alpha_0=1/2, the Lamb shift alone yields t<1027st_*<10^{-27}\,{\rm s}, <1019m\ell_*<10^{-19}\,{\rm m} and E>450GeVE_*>450\,\text{GeV}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.06858,
  title  = {Standard Model in multiscale theories and observational constraints},
  author = {Gianluca Calcagni and Giuseppe Nardelli and David Rodríguez-Fernández},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.06858},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

25 pages. v2: authors' metadata corrected; v3: references added, new material added including a comparison with varying-couplings and effective field theories, a section on predictivity and falsifiability of multiscale theories, a discussion on classical CPT, expanded conclusions, and new QED constraints from the fine-structure constant; v3: minor typos corrected to match the published version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:15:25.218Z