Space, Time and Superluminal Particles

Abstract

If textbook Lorentz invariance is actually a property of the equations describing a sector of matter above some critical distance scale, several sectors of matter with different critical speeds in vacuum can coexist and an absolute rest frame (the vacuum rest frame, possibly related to the local rest frame of the expanding Universe) may exist without contradicting the apparent Lorentz invariance felt by "ordinary" particles (particles with critical speed in vacuum equal to c , the speed of light). The real geometry of space-time will then be different from standard Lorentz invariance, and the Poincare relativity principle will be a local (in space and time), approximate sectorial property. It seems natural to assume that particles with critical speed in vacuum different from c are superluminal. We illustrate such a scenario using as an example a spinorial space-time where the modulus of the spinor, associated to the time variable, is the size of an expanding Universe. Several properties of superluminal particles, and of matter without a universal relativity principle, are discussed in view of experimental applications. If the vacuum rest frame is close to that suggested by the cosmic microwave background, experimental searches for superluminal particles on earth should mainly contemplate a laboratory speed range around 10E3 c , even for very high energy superluminal cosmic rays. The detectability of several consequences of the new scenario is briefly discussed.