Date of Award
2006
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Physics and Astronomy Dept.
Advisor(s)
Robert T. Bluhm
Abstract
Classical electromagnetism predicts two massless propagating modes, which are known as the two polarizations of the photon. On the other hand, if the Lorentz symmetry of classical electromagnetism is spontaneously broken, the new theory will still have two massless Nambu-Goldstone modes resembling the photon. If the Lorentz symmetry is broken by a bumblebee potential that allows for excitations out of the minimum, then massive modes arise. Furthermore, in curved spacetime, such massive modes will be created through a process other than the usual Higgs mechanism because of the dependence of the bumblebee potential on both the vector field and the metric tensor. Also, it is found that these massive modes do not propagate due to the extra constraints.
Keywords
electromagnetism, Lorentz symmetry, Lorentz Violation, Bumblebee Model
Recommended Citation
Fung, Shu Hong, "Vector Theory of Spontaneous Lorentz Violation" (2006). Honors Theses. Paper 522.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/522
Copyright
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