Classical Nonminimal Lagrangians and Kinematic Tests of Special Relativity

Abstract

This article gives a brief summary on recently obtained classical lagrangians for the nonminimal fermion sector of the Standard-Model Extension (SME). Such lagrangians are adequate descriptions of classical particles that are subject to a Lorentz-violating background field based on the SME. Explicitly, lagrangians were obtained for the leading nonminimal contributions of the m, a, c, e, and f coefficients. These results were then used to interpret classical, kinematic tests of Special Relativity in the framework of the nonminimal SME. This led to new constraints on certain nonminimal controlling coefficients. Although the experiments were very sophisticated in the era when they were carried out, their sensitivities for detecting Lorentz violation were still far away from the Planck scale. Obtaining the novel constraints can be considered as a proof-of-principle demonstrating the applicability of the classical lagrangians computed.