Fermionic Lorentz violation and its implications for interferometric gravitational-wave detection

Abstract

The recent direct detection of gravitational waves reported by Advanced LIGO has inspired the current article. In this context, a particular Lorentz-violating framework for classical, massive particles is the focus. The latter is characterized by a preferred direction in spacetime comprised of CPT-odd components with mass dimension 1. Curvature effects in spacetime, which are caused by a propagating gravitational wave, are assumed to deform the otherwise constant background field. In accordance with spontaneous Lorentz violation, a particular choice for the vector field is taken, which was proposed elsewhere. The geodesic equations for a particle that is subject to this type of Lorentz violation are obtained. Subsequently, their numerical solutions are computed and discussed. The particular model considered leads to changes in the particle trajectory whose impact on interferometric gravitational-wave experiments such as LIGO will be studied.