English

Anomalous positron excess from Lorentz-violating QED

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2009-12-10 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We entertain the idea that a suitable background of cold (very low momentum) pseudoscalar particles or condensate, may trigger a background that effectively generates Lorentz-invariance violation. This aether-like background induces a Chern-Simons modification of QED. Physics is different in different frames and, in the rest frame of the pseudoscalar background, high momentum photons can decay into pairs. The threshold for such decay depends quadratically on the rest mass of the particles. This mechanism could explain in a natural way why antiprotons are absent in recent cosmic ray measurements. A similar signal could be used as a probe of pseudoscalar condensation in heavy ion collisions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0907.3709,
  title  = {Anomalous positron excess from Lorentz-violating QED},
  author = {Alexander A. Andrianov and Domenec Espriu and Paola Giacconi and Roberto Soldati},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0907.3709},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

13 pages, few refs and comments on electron radiation added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:27:32.263Z