Parity at the Planck scale

Abstract

We explore the possibility that well known properties of the parity operator, such as its idempotency and unitarity, might break down at the Planck scale. Parity might then do more than just swap right and left polarized states and reverse the sign of spatial momentum ${\bf k}$: it might generate superpositions of right and left handed states, as well as mix momenta of different magnitudes. We lay down the general formalism, but also consider the concrete case of the Planck scale kinematics governed by $\kappa$-Poincar\'e symmetries, where some of the general features highlighted appear explicitly. We explore some of the observational implications for cosmological fluctuations. Different power spectra for right handed and left handed tensor modes might actually be a manifestation of deformed parity symmetry at the Planck scale. Moreover, scale-invariance and parity symmetry appear deeply interconnected.