Generalized Lorentz invariance with an invariant energy scale
Abstract
The hypothesis that the Lorentz transformations may be modified at Planck scale energies is further explored. We present a general formalism for theories which preserve the relativity of inertial frames with a nonlinear action of the Lorentz transformations on momentum space. Several examples are discussed in which the speed of light varies with energy and elementary particles have a maximum momenta and/or energy. Energy and momentum conservation are suitably generalized and a proposal is made for how the new transformation laws apply to composite systems. We then use these results to explain the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray anomaly and we find a form of the theory that explains the anomaly, and leads also to a maximum momentum and a speed of light that diverges with energy. We finally propose that the spatial coordinates be identified as the generators of translation in Minkowski spacetime. In some examples this leads to a commutative geometry, but with an energy dependent Planck constant.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- February 2003
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/0207085
- Bibcode:
- 2003PhRvD..67d4017M
- Keywords:
-
- 04.50.+h;
- 03.30.+p;
- 04.60.-m;
- Gravity in more than four dimensions Kaluza-Klein theory unified field theories;
- alternative theories of gravity;
- Special relativity;
- Quantum gravity;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- Phys.Rev.D67:044017,2003