Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2006-07-13
Phys.Rev.D75:085013,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
15 pages, 2 figures; minor changes, references added, submitted to Phys.Rev.D
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevD.75.085013
Field theories whose full action is Lorentz invariant (or diffeomorphism invariant) can exhibit superluminal behaviors through the breaking of local Lorentz invariance. Quantum induced superluminal velocities are well-known examples of this effect. The issue of the causal behavior of such propagations is somewhat controversial in the literature and we intend to clarify it. We provide a careful analysis of the meaning of causality in classical relativistic field theories, and we stress the role played by the Cauchy problem and the notions of chronology and time arrow. We show that superluminal behavior threaten causality only if a prior chronology on spacetime is chosen. In the case where superluminal propagations occur, however, there is at least two non conformally related metrics on spacetime and thus two available notions of chronology. These two chronologies are on equal footing and it would thus be misleading to choose \textit{ab initio} one of them to define causality. Rather, we provide a formulation of causality in which no prior chronology is assumed. We argue this is the only way to deal with the issue of causality in the case where some degrees of freedom propagate faster than others. We actually show that superluminal propagations do not threaten causality. As an illustration of these conceptual issues, we consider two field theories, namely k-essences scalar fields and bimetric theories of gravity, and we derive the conditions imposed by causality. We discuss various applications such as the dark energy problem, MOND-like theories of gravity and varying speed of light theories.
No associations
LandOfFree
On causality and superluminal behavior in classical field theories. Applications to k-essence theories and MOND-like theories of gravity does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with On causality and superluminal behavior in classical field theories. Applications to k-essence theories and MOND-like theories of gravity, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and On causality and superluminal behavior in classical field theories. Applications to k-essence theories and MOND-like theories of gravity will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-480512