CPT-Violating, Massive Photons and Cherenkov Radiation

Abstract

CPT-Violating photons are well-known to have problems with energy positivity in certain cases and therefore have not been convincingly quantized to date. We find that by adding a small mass term, consistent with experimental bounds, the theory can be regulated and allows for a consistent covariant quantization procedure. This new framework is applied to a consistent quantum calculation of vacuum Cherenkov radiation rates. These rates turn out to be largely independent of the mass of the photon regulator used. In the physical regime, accessible by ultra high energy cosmic rays, the behavior of the rate is proportional to the square of the CPT-violating parameter and is not realistically observable.