Problems with Lorentz Violation Originating From a Cosmologically Varying Pseudoscalar Field

Abstract

Lorentz- and CPT-violating models of electrodynamics with Chern-Simons terms are typically plagued by various sorts of instabilities. However, when the Chern-Simons term arises from a slow time variation in a pseudoscalar field with an axion-like electromagnetic coupling, the total energy of the theory is bounded below. We examine the behavior of such a theory, finding that in a systematic power series expansion of the magnetic and pseudoscalar fields, singularities appear in the field profiles. Some of the questionable behavior can be cured by taking a fully nonperturbative approach, but other problematic terms remain. This may be an indication that Cerenkov-like radiation will automatically carry away energy from a moving charge, preventing a charge from moving with uniform velocity over extended distances.