Astroparticle Physics Tests of Lorentz Invariance Violation

Abstract

Testing Lorentz invariance is essential as it is one of the pillars of modern physics. Moreover, its violation is foreseen in several popular Quantum Gravity models. Several authors study the effects of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) in the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. These particles are the most energetic events ever detected and therefore represent a promising framework to test LIV. In this work we present an analytic calculation of the inelasticity for any a + b → c + d interaction using first order perturbation in the dispersion relation that violates Lorentz invariance. The inelasticity can be calculated by solving a third-order polynomial equation containing: a) the kinematics of the interaction, b) the LIV term for each particle and c) the geometry of the interaction. We use the inelasticity we calculate to investigate the proton propagation in the intergalactic media. The photopion production of the proton interaction with the CMB is taken into account using the inelasticity and the attenuation length in different LIV scenarios. We show how the allowed phase space for the photopion production changes when LIV is considered for the interaction. The calculations presented here are going to be extended in order to calculated the modified ultra-high energy cosmic rays spectrum and compare it to the data.