Extending the Standard Model to Include CPT- and Lorentz-Breaking Terms

Abstract

Low-energy remnant fundamental symmetry violations may be present in nature at levels attainable in upcoming experiments. These effects may arise through spontaneous symmetry breaking in a more complete Lorentz covariant theory underlying the standard model. In this work the issue of parameterizing such violations in a consistent and complete manner is addressed. The approach is to use the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking to generate all possible terms consistent with gauge invariance and power-counting renormalizability to construct an extension of the standard model that includes Lorentz- and CPT-breaking terms. A consistent quantization of the theory is developed, conventional quantum field theoretic techniques are shown to apply, and some ramifications for quantum electrodynamics are explored.