Related papers: On the Photon Mass
In the standard model of particle physics, photons are mass-less particles with a particular dispersion relation. Tests of this claim at different scales are both interesting and important. Experiments in territory labs and several…
As a basic symmetry of space-time, Lorentz symmetry has played important roles in various fields of physics, and it is a glamorous question whether Lorentz symmetry breaks. Since Einstein proposed special relativity, Lorentz symmetry has…
Recent observations of ultra high energy cosmic rays and gamma rays suggest that there are small violations of Lorentz symmetry. If there were no such violations, then the GZK cut off would hold and cosmic rays with energy $\sim 10^{20}eV$…
De Broglie believed that the photon has a mass, a view shared by a few others. Quite recently, the author has argued that the photon has a mass which is consistent with the latest experimental limits. In the present paper we point out that…
Recent observations of Ultra High Energy Cosmic rays suggest a small violation of Lorentz symmetry. Such a violation is expected in schemes with discrete/quantized spacetime. We examine this situation and suggest tests which could be…
We discuss some of the tests of Lorentz symmetry made possible by astrophysical observations of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays, and neutrinos. These are among the most sensitive tests of Lorentz symmetry violation because they are…
As a basic symmetry of Einstein's theory of special relativity, Lorentz invariance has withstood very strict tests. But there are still motivations for such tests. Firstly, many theories of quantum gravity suggest violations of Lorentz…
The author's work over the past years has indicated that the photon has a small mass $\sim 10^{-33}eV$. Recent observations from three different viewpoints -- the time lag in cosmic gamma rays with different frequencies, the observation of…
A number of approaches to fundamental physics can lead to the violation of Lorentz and CPT symmetry. This talk discusses the low-energy phenomenology associated with such effects and reviews various sample experiments within this context.
The effects of a nonzero photon rest mass can be incorporated into electromagnetism in a simple way using the Proca equations. In this vein, two interesting implications regarding the possible existence of a massive photon in nature, i.e.,…
Violations of Lorentz symmetry are typically associated with modifications of one-particle dispersion relations. The physical effects of such modifications in particle collisions often grow with energy, so that ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays…
In an historical context, present limits on the photon rest mass are reviewed. More stringent, yet speculative, limits which have been proposed are mentioned. Finally, new theoretical ideas and possible experimental improvements on the…
We consider Lorentz violation in supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. We perform a spurion analysis to show that, in the simplest natural constructions, the resulting supersymmetry-breaking masses are tiny. In the process, we…
Special relativity has been tested at low energy with great accuracy, but these results cannot be extrapolated to the very high-energy region. Introducing a critical distance scale, $a$ , below 10E-25 cm (the wavelength scale of the…
A fundamental spacetime scale in the universe leads to noncommutative spacetime and thence to a modified energy - momentum dispersion relation or equivalently to a modification of Lorentz symmetry as shown by the author and others. This…
Astroparticle physics has recently reached a new status of precision due to the construction of new observatories, operating innovative technologies and the detection of large numbers of events and sources. The precise measurements of…
Extremely high-energy(EHE) cosmic rays might provide a chance to check a violation of the Lorentz symmetry of spacetime. Some theoretical consideration is described about why the Lorentz symmetry might break-down in EHE phenomena in this…
A status report is given of some recent theoretical and experimental investigations looking for signals of Lorentz violation in QED. Experiments with light, charged particles, and atoms have exceptional sensitivity to small shifts in energy…
We suggest a possibility that the photon can acquire a finite mass in a medium when the external interaction and symmetry is broken on the basis of Chern-Simons gauge theory.
Lorentz invariance, the fundamental symmetry of Einstein's theory of Special Relativity, has been established and tested by many classical and modern experiments. However, many theories that unify the Standard Model of particle physics and…