Lorentz violation in the linearized gravity

In general relativity, the masslessness of gravitons can be traced to symmetry under diffeomorphisms. Here we consider another possibility, whereby the masslessness arises from spontaneous violation of Lorentz symmetry.

We review the main theoretical motivations and observational constraints on Planck scale suppressed violations of Lorentz invariance. After introducing the problems related to the phenomenological study of quantum gravitational effects, we discuss the main theoretical frameworks within which possible departures from Lorentz invariance can be described. In particular, we focus on the framework of Effective Field Theory, describing several possible ways of including Lorentz vio...

Gravitational wave observations have been used to test Lorentz symmetry by looking for dispersive effects that are caused by higher order corrections to the dispersion relation. In this Letter I argue on general grounds that, when such corrections are present, there will also be a scalar excitation. Hence, a smoking-gun observation of Lorentz symmetry breaking would be the direct detection of scalar waves that travel at a speed other than the speed of the standard gravitation...

Gravitational wave solutions with spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking are studied. This breaking is triggered by a vector field, known as the bumblebee field. A brief analysis of the main consequences of this symmetry breaking on free-waves solutions and in the presence of matter sources are presented. For the free case, the modified wave equation for the gravitational perturbation field is solved, and we compare the polarization states with the usual solution. Considering ...

We consider a model of Quantum Gravity phenomenology, based on the idea that space-time may have some unknown granular structure that respects the Lorentz symmetry. The proposal involves non-trivial couplings of curvature to matter fields and leads to a well defined phenomenology. In this manuscript, a brief description of the model is presented together with some results obtained using linearized gravity and the Newtonian limit, which could be useful when comparing with real...

The lagrangian-based Standard-Model Extension framework offers a broad description of possible gravitational effects from local Lorentz violation. In this talk, I review the status of the theoretical and phenomenological work in this area. The extension of previous results in linearized gravity to the nonlinear regime is discussed.

We explore the interplay of matter with quantum gravity with a preferred frame to highlight that the matter sector cannot be protected from the symmetry-breaking effects in the gravitational sector. Focusing on Abelian gauge fields, we show that quantum gravitational radiative corrections induce Lorentz-invariance-violating couplings for the Abelian gauge field. In particular, we discuss how such a mechanism could result in the possibility to translate observational constrain...

This proceedings contribution summarizes recent investigations of Lorentz violation in matter-gravity couplings.

The notion that gravitation might lead to a breakdown of standard space-time structure at small distances, and that this might affect the propagation of ordinary particles has led to a program to search for violations of Lorentz invariance as a probe of quantum gravity. Initially it was expected that observable macroscopic effects caused by microscopic violations of Lorentz invariance would necessarily be suppressed by at least one power of the small ratio between the Planck ...

A brief summary of some of the main consequences of spontaneous Lorentz violation in gravity is presented, including evasion of a no-go theorem, concomitant spontaneous diffeomorphism breaking, the appearance of massless Nambu-Goldstone modes and massive Higgs modes, and the possibility of a Higgs mechanism in gravity.