Cutoff estimate in Lifshitz five-dimensional field theories

Abstract

We analyze if and to what extent the high energy behavior of five-dimensional (5D) gauge theories can be improved by adding certain higher dimensional operators of ``Lifshitz'' type, without breaking the ordinary four-dimensional Lorentz symmetries. We show that the UV behavior of the transverse gauge field polarizations can be improved by the Lifshitz operators, while the longitudinal polarizations get strongly coupled at energies lower than the ones in ordinary 5D theories, spoiling the usefulness of the construction in non-Abelian gauge theories. We conclude that the improved behavior as effective theories of the ordinary 5D models is not only related to locality and 5D gauge symmetries, but is a special property of the standard theories defined by the lowest dimensional operators.