Abstract
We propose an innovative test of Lorentz symmetry by observing pairs of simultaneous parallel extensive air showers produced by the fragments of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray nuclei which disintegrated in collisions with solar photons. We show that the search for a cross-correlation of showers in arrival time and direction becomes background free for an angular scale < 3^\circ and a time window {\cal O}(10 s). We also show that if the solar photo-disintegration probability of helium is {\cal O} (10^{-5.5}) then the hunt for spatiotemporal coincident showers could be within range of existing cosmic ray facilities, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory. We demonstrate that the actual observation of a few events can be used to constrain Lorentz violating dispersion relations of the nucleon.
Highlights
Ever since Greisen, Zatsepin, and Kuzmin (GZK) pointed out that the pervasive radiation fields make the Universe opaque to the propagation of ultrahigh-energy (E ≳ 109 GeV) cosmic rays (UHECRs) [1,2], it became evident that the actual observation of the GZK effect would provide strong constraints on Lorentz invariant breaking effects
This is because if Lorentz invariance is broken in the form of nonstandard dispersion relations for various particles, absorption and energy loss processes for UHECR interactions would be modified; see e.g. [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
The experimental confirmation that UHECR processes occur at the expected energy thresholds can be considered as an indirect piece of evidence supporting Lorentz symmetry under colossal boost transformations
Summary
Ever since Greisen, Zatsepin, and Kuzmin (GZK) pointed out that the pervasive radiation fields make the Universe opaque to the propagation of ultrahigh-energy (E ≳ 109 GeV) cosmic rays (UHECRs) [1,2], it became evident that the actual observation of the GZK effect would provide strong constraints on Lorentz invariant breaking effects. The GZK interactions (photo-pion production and nucleus photo-disintegration) are characterized by well defined energy thresholds [near the excitation of the Δþð1232Þ and the giant dipole resonance, respectively], which can be predicted on the basis of Lorentz invariance.
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