# Invariance violation extends the cosmic ray horizon ?

## 1 Introduction

Phenomena strikingly deviating from the conventional understanding can take place if the speed of photons is allowed to vary from the constant light velocity $`c`$. Coleman and Glashow (1997) argued that the velocity $`c_0`$ of light in the vacuum in a frame moving relative to the rest frame of the universe can differ from the maximal attainable speed $`c`$ of a material body. If $`c_0>c`$, the photon 4-momentum $`(\stackrel{}{E}/c_0,E)`$ is time-like, allowing a sufficiently energetic photon to decay into an electron-positron pair. Alternatively, if $`c_0<c`$, a charged particle will lose energy via vacuum Čerenkov radiation because the particle speed approaching $`c`$ at high energies can exceed the light speed $`c_0`$. Thus, the distance that energetic $`\gamma `$-rays or charged particles can travel through is shortened for either $`c_0>c`$ or $`c_0<c`$. However, the violation of relativity may also have a possibility of increasing the travelling distance of high energy radiation rather than decreasing.

The speed of photons can vary due to modifications of the vacuum (Latorre et al. 1995). Different energies excite the vacuum differently, and with quantum gravity, Amelino-Camelia et al. (1997) speculated that the energy-momentum relation for photons is modified to violate Lorentz invariance and the anomalous effect increases as photon energy approaches the Planck energy scale ($`10^{19}`$ GeV). Amelino-Camelia et al. (1998) has proposed a test for the modified speed by measuring the arrival time structure of photons from objects at cosmological distances. The propagation speed is $`dE/dk=c(1\xi _\gamma E/E_0)`$ from the modified relation of energy $`E`$ and momentum $`k`$,

$$c^2k^2=(E+\xi _\gamma \frac{E^2}{2E_0})^2=E^2+\xi _\gamma \frac{E^3}{E_0}$$
(1)   
with $`\xi _\gamma =\pm 1`$ and $`E_o10^{19}`$ GeV, according to Amelino-Camelia et al. 1998. By assuming the existence of a preferred frame for Lorenz transformation but preserving other kinds of invariance, Coleman and Glashow 1998 gives a relation, which is similar to (1) and equivalent to $`c^2k^2=E^2m_i^2c^4+(c^2c_i^2)E^2`$ for $`ckEm_ic^2`$, where $`c_i`$ is the maximal attainable speed of particle species $`i`$ with mass $`m_i`$. Our study in what follows will be in an explicit form based on (1), but the results are, to some extent, applicable also to the other case by putting $`c^2c_i^2`$ in the place where the term $`\xi _iE/E_0`$ appears.

The electromagnetic radiation of the shortest wavelength so far detected is TeV $`\gamma `$-rays (see for example, Weekes et al. 1997; Ong 1998), but even for these high energy photons, the effect of velocity variation remains as small as a fraction $`10^{15}`$ of the light velocity. However, a higher degree of anomalous effect is expected for the absorption process, in which $`\gamma `$-rays are converted into an electron–positron pair when they collide with soft photons of the universal radiation field. Photons of TeV energies react with infrared photons, and PeV $`\gamma `$-rays with the 2.7K CMB (cosmic microwave background). From the number density of the photons of the universal infrared and CMB, the collision mean free path is usually estimated as about 100 Mpc and 10 kpc (e.g. Strong et al. 1974; Stecker et al. 1992), respectively for TeV and PeV $`\gamma `$-rays. The largest distance we can see with the high energy radiations is thus much shorter than those of X-rays and optical photons of longer wavelengths.

## 2 Kinematical constraints on the photon-photon collision process

The threshold energy is determined by a function of the total energy $`W`$ and momentum $`Q`$ of the initial state, $`W^2c^2Q^2`$, which must exceed $`(2mc^2)^2`$ for the pair creation, where $`m`$ is the electron mass. In the initial state of a $`\gamma `$-ray obeying the relation (1) and soft photons of energy $`\epsilon `$, the square of the energy $`E`$ and the momentum $`E/c`$ in $`W^2c^2Q^2`$ almost cancel each other to leave $`4\epsilon E\xi _\gamma E^3/E_0`$ (the two photons are assumed to be from opposite directions). The remaining two terms are, when $`\epsilon /E`$ is as small as $`\xi _\gamma E/E_0`$, of similar magnitude to each other, incurring a considerable degree of anomalous effect. In addition, the two terms become as large as $`m^2c^4`$ when $`E10^{12}\xi _\gamma ^{1/3}10^{12}\epsilon ^1`$ eV, and the threshold condition is considerably affected by the violation effect for $`E>10^{13}\xi _\gamma ^{1/3}`$ eV, which can be much lower than the Planck energy scale.

Let us examine the above speculation by calculating in our rest frame the conservation of momentum of the reaction. By putting $`c`$ = 1 hereafter, the momentum $`E\epsilon +\xi _\gamma E^2/(2E_0)`$ of the initial state (we assume for simplicity, but not to lose the generality, $`\mathrm{`}`$head-on’ collision of $`\gamma `$-ray and soft photon) must be equal to $`p_1cos\alpha +p_2cos\beta `$ of the final state, where ($`E_1`$, $`\stackrel{}{p}_1`$) and ($`E_2`$, $`\stackrel{}{p}_2`$) is energy and momentum of electron and positron and $`E+\epsilon =E_1+E_2`$. The $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are the angles $`\stackrel{}{p}_1`$ and $`\stackrel{}{p}_2`$ make against the direction of the initial gamma ray and are in the order of $`m/E_i`$ ($`i=1`$ and 2). By using the approximation $`p_i=E_im^2/(2E_i)`$ and the condition on the transverse momenta $`\alpha p_1=\beta p_2`$, we obtain

$$2\epsilon +\frac{\xi _\gamma E^2}{2E_0}=\frac{E+\epsilon }{2}(\frac{m^2}{E_1E_2}+\alpha \beta ).$$
(2)   
We use a parameter $`x`$ to replace $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ by $`E_{1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}=(1\pm x)(E+\epsilon )/2`$ with the condition $`|x|12m/(E+\epsilon )`$. The equation (2) is then written as

$$\epsilon \frac{m^2}{E}\frac{1}{1x^2}+\frac{\alpha \beta E}{4}+\xi _\gamma \frac{E^2}{4E_0}.$$
(3)   
The first and second terms are of the same order of magnitude, the latter term approaching zero at the threshold of the reaction. With increasing $`E`$, softer photons can serve as the target photons, shortening the absorption mean free path. This conventional view is altered as $`E`$ further increases, by the presence of the term $`\xi _\gamma E^2/(4E_0)`$. However, electron and positron may also obey a modified relation similar to (1). Let us put, similarly to (1), the square of the modified momentum $`q`$ to be equal to

$$q^2=p^2+\xi _e\frac{E^3}{E_0}=E^2m^2+\xi _e\frac{E^3}{E_0}.$$
(4)   
We grant $`|\xi _e|1`$ for allowing electrons to have a different degree of the invariance violation. By replacing $`p`$ by $`q`$, a relation similar to (3),

$$\epsilon =\frac{m^2}{E}\frac{1}{1x^2}+\frac{\alpha \beta E}{4}+\frac{E^2}{4E_0}(\xi _\gamma \xi _e\frac{1+x^2}{2}),$$
(5)   
is obtained. Since energy $`E`$ is divided almost equally into two particles (when $`x0`$) and the anomalous term has $`E^2`$ dependence, the factor 2 appears in the denominator of $`\xi _e(1+x^2)/2`$, thus reducing the effect in the final state. The fact might seem to suggest that the single $`\mathrm{`}`$leading’ particle taking almost all the total energy ($`|x|1`$) is capable of eliminating the anomalous effect. However, the substitution of $`|x|=12m/(E+\epsilon )`$ into (5) increases the energy $`\epsilon `$ to $`m1`$ MeV which is much higher than $`m^2/E`$, and then leads to a very large travelling distance, resulting in no less anomalous consequence. Only if $`\xi _e`$ is tuned to be $`2\xi _\gamma `$ for unknown reason, we can recover the ordinary relation for $`\epsilon `$.

## 3 Comparison with observations

Energy $`\epsilon `$ of the target photon is plotted against $`\gamma `$-ray energy $`E`$ in Fig. 1. A minimum value of $`\epsilon `$ is taken, if $`\xi =2\xi _\gamma \xi _e>0`$, at the critical energy $`E_c=(4m^2E_0/\xi )^{1/3}10^{13}`$ eV for $`\xi =1`$. The minimum value is about 0.03 eV and $`\epsilon `$ must increase to about 30 eV at $`E=10^{15}`$ eV. Thus, CMB of $`10^3`$ eV is never given a chance of contributing to the pair creation process. The travelling length has the shortest value of $``$10 Mpc at $`E=E_c`$, and increases again for $`E>E_c`$. Since $`30`$eV photons are very sparse, $`\gamma `$-rays would travel through distances $`>`$ 1 Gpc. When $`\xi <0`$, $`\epsilon `$ must rapidly decrease as $`E`$ approaches $`E_c`$. Before taking negative value, CMB photons become available as target. The energetic $`\gamma `$-rays are then efficiently absorbed with a mean free path of $`10`$ kpc, which is shorter by orders of magnitude than the ordinary case.

Among the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray sources are two active galaxies, Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 (Punch et al. 1992; Aharoninan et al. 1997; Catanese et al. 1997). The objects are at distances of $``$ 100 Mpc, and the detection is consistent with the absorption mean free path determined by infrared intensity in the extra-galactic space. The energy spectrum of the $`\gamma `$-rays is found to extend up to 10 - 20 TeV. If the spectrum continues to extend to even higher energies, $`\xi <0`$ would be excluded. Because, if $`\xi <0`$, a very sharp cut-off at the common energy $`E_c`$ is expected in the energy spectrum for any extra-galactic objects. The negative $`\epsilon `$ for $`E>E_c`$ in the case of $`\xi <0`$ implies that $`\gamma `$-rays does not need target photons for pair creation. The threshold of $`\gamma `$-ray decaying into an electron-positron pair (Coleman and Glashow 1997) is given by $`|E_c|`$. By putting $`|E_c|=E_c=(4m^2E_0/(\xi ))^{1/3}>20`$ TeV, we obtain a limit on $`\xi `$ to be $`\xi >1.3`$ (by putting $`E_0=1\times 10^{28}`$ eV). On the other hand, when $`\xi `$ is positive and $`1`$, the travelling distance turns over to increase above about 10 TeV and to become larger than 1 Gpc for the photons around 100 TeV. Thus, 100 TeV photons would arrive from extra-galactic sources, implying that evidence of detection would be strongly in favour of the $`\xi >0`$ case. Extra-galactic diffuse $`\gamma `$-rays are most likely from distant unresolved active galaxies. The energy spectrum is observed by Sreekumar et al. 1997 to extend to about 50 GeV with a hard power index of $`2.3`$. The spectrum is expected to become steeper at higher energies due to the intenser infrared photons and then CMB at longer wavelengths. However, in the case of $`\xi >0`$, the energy spectrum may have a turn-over of showing a harder slope above $`E=E_c`$. Electrons lose their energy quickly and have difficulty in producing such high energy $`\gamma `$-rays. However, cosmic ray protons are known to have energy spectrum extending to $`10^{20}`$ eV, and are able to produce $`\gamma `$-rays as high as or larger than 100 TeV. The increase of travelling distance suggests more contribution from more distant sources and thus we may expect considerably intense, diffuse $`\gamma `$-rays in the higher energy region. From the Crab nebula, 50 TeV photons have been detected (Tanimori et al. 1997) by using imaging Čerenkov telescope at large zenith angles. Detection of 100 TeV $`\gamma `$-rays is not unrealistic by the extensive application of such methods.

## 4 Case of cosmic ray protons

Our phenomenological consideration can be extended to other processes of soft photons acting as the reaction target. Extremely high energy cosmic ray protons (e.g. Hill and Schramm 1985; Axford 1994; O’Halloran et al. 1998; Takeda et al. 1998) are believed to lose energy by pion production in collision with CMB. The number density of CMB and the photo-pion cross section determine the collision mean free path to be $`10`$ Mpc. The energy spectrum thus suffers from the GZK cutoff (Greisen 1966; Zatsepin and Kuzmin 1966) at about $`10^{20}`$ eV, if the protons are from the distances farther than the mean free path. However, the relation (4) assumed for proton and pion alters the threshold of the energy $`\epsilon `$ of target photons from $`\mu M/(2E)`$ to

$$\epsilon =\frac{\mu M}{2E}+\mathrm{\Xi }\frac{E^2}{4E_0},\mathrm{where}\mathrm{\Xi }=\xi _p\xi _p(\frac{M}{M+\mu })^2\xi _\pi (\frac{\mu }{M+\mu })^2.$$
(6)   
The energy $`E`$ is for the initial proton, $`M`$ and $`\mu `$ are the proton and pion mass, and $`\xi _p`$ and $`\xi _\pi `$ for protons and pions, respectively. We have put the parameter $`x`$ to be $`(M\mu )/(M+\mu )`$, corresponding to the case in which the ratio of proton to pion energy in the final state is $`(1+x)/(1x)=M/\mu `$ near the threshold of the process. If $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ is positive and not very far from the order of one, the second term becomes comparable with $`\mu M/(2E)`$ at the critical energy $`E_{p\pi }=(M\mu E_0/\mathrm{\Xi })^{1/3}10^{15}`$ eV. At $`E10^{20}`$ eV, the energy $`\epsilon `$ needs to be, as dominated by $`\mathrm{\Xi }E^2/(4E_0)`$, as large as $`10^{12}`$ eV, and CMB can not play the role of target photons. Cosmic ray protons at $`10^{20}`$ eV can then travel without the attenuation from cosmological distances farther than $`10`$ Mpc. As a result, the energy spectrum of cosmic rays would extend beyond $`10^{20}`$ eV, provided that the acceleration to such high energies takes place in celestial objects. There is speculation by Vietri 1995 and Waxman 1995 that GRB ($`\gamma `$-ray bursts) provides the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays. If so, GRBs at cosmological distances would produce a cosmic ray spectrum without GZK cutoff. If $`\mathrm{\Xi }<0`$, $`\epsilon `$ can be $`10^3`$ eV when $`E`$ approaches $`|E_{p\pi }|=E_{p\pi }10^{15}`$ eV, implying that the target photons of CMB gives a characteristic attenuation length of $``$10 Mpc to $`10^{15}`$ eV cosmic rays. For $`E>|E_{p\pi }|`$, the kinematical condition does not require the target photon for the pion production to occur and the processes of $`pp+\pi ^0`$ and $`pn+\pi ^+`$ will cause protons to rapidly lose energy. The energy loss due to the spontaneous production of pion is in contradiction with the evidence of cosmic ray protons up to $`10^{20}`$ eV. Thus, we limit $`|E_{p\pi }|`$ longer than $`10^{20}`$ eV, and obtain a bound of $`\mathrm{\Xi }>10^{17}`$.

## 5 Discussions

Collision processes of high energy radiations with soft photons enable us to test the consequences of violation of Lorentz invariance. In particular, the effect of quantum gravity which Amelino-Camelia et al. (1998) suggest can be made detectable by the reaction process in the energy region much lower than the Planck energy scale, but in the sufficiently high energy region to which the validity of Lorentz transformation has not been examined yet by accelerator experiments. The violation suggests an interesting possibility of increasing the distance we can reach by observing high energy $`\gamma `$-rays and cosmic rays. Absence of the GZK cutoff would not necessarily mean nearby origin of the extremely high energy cosmic rays. Photons of energies larger than 100 TeV from extra-galactic objects would provide a clear test because it is hard to explain by other mechanisms than the violation of invariance. It seems impossible, once we admit the relation (1) for photons, to totally eliminate the anomalous effect, without a specially designed tuning among the invariance violating terms for various particles of different masses. Other ways have been proposed to alter the conventional view on the relativity (Gonzares-Mestres 1997; Sato 1998). Absence of GZK cutoff can be explained, according to Sato 1998, without abandoning the Lorenz invariance, but by giving a special status to $`\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}`$the universe frame” in which CMB is isotropic.

Protons are expected to lose energy via vacuum Čerenkov radiation (Coleman and Glashow 1997), when $`\xi _\gamma \xi _p>0`$. The threshold energy, $`E_{th}=(M^2E_0/(\xi _\gamma \xi _p))^{1/3}`$, of the radiation is calculated from equating the speed of photon to that of proton. The detection of the highest energy $`10^{20}`$ eV of cosmic rays sets a constraint $`E_{th}>10^{20}`$ eV and limits the $`\xi `$-parameters to be $`\xi _\gamma \xi _p<10^{15}`$ or rather $`\xi _\gamma \xi _p`$ for practical use. The Čerenkov radiation from electron yields a less tight constraint because of the dependence of $`\xi `$ on $`E_{th}`$, i.e. $`\xi =\xi _\gamma \xi _eE_{th}^3`$. The highest energy $`2\times 10^{12}`$ eV of cosmic ray electrons ever detected (Nishiumura et al. 1997) must be less than $`E_{th}`$ and then we obtain $`\xi _\gamma \xi _e<10^3`$. If we choose, for the bound on $`E_{th}`$, $`100`$ TeV electrons which are responsible for TeV $`\gamma `$-rays and which are considered to extend over a spatial scale of at least $``$ 1 pc, the constraint is made somewhat tighter as $`\xi _\gamma \xi _e<10^2`$. We may argue about allowed region of $`(\xi _\gamma ,\xi _e)`$ values by combining the condition $`1.3<2\xi _\gamma \xi _e`$ from the decay process $`\gamma e^++e^{}`$. The region is, to some extent, in disfavor with negative values. The time structure of the outbursts of TeV $`\gamma `$-rays from Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 sets constraint on $`\xi _\gamma `$. The delay time of 10 TeV $`\gamma `$-rays relative to photons of lower energies is $`(d/c)\xi _\gamma (10^{13}\mathrm{eV}/E_0)10\xi _\gamma s`$ for distance $`d=100`$ Mpc. Duration of the outbursts which has been observed typically as a few hours is considered to be longer than the delay time, providing a constraint of $`\xi _\gamma <10^3`$. We need to know the outburst structure in time scales as short as $`10s`$ to constrain $`|\xi |`$ less than $`1`$. In order to restrict the $`|\xi |`$ parameter more tightly, It is very useful to observe photons of higher energies from more distant objects. However, we can not expect that such $`\gamma `$-rays survive against conversion into an electron-positron pair and reach us, unless we premise that the Lorenz invariance is violated.

We may argue that the extensive air shower events of $`10^{20}`$ eV are in truth not due to proton. Such a claim is relevant to $`\mathrm{`}`$correct’ understanding of the complex phenomena of the cascade shower process, which still leaves a room for a speculation of $`\mathrm{`}`$anomalous interaction’ of cosmic rays. Thus, it is interesting to indicate that the modified relation of energy and momentum can affect detection of the high energy radiations. Observation of $`\gamma `$-rays for example is based on the pair creation process in the detector material (satellite experiments) or in the atmosphere (ground-based observation for TeV photons and cosmic rays). The recoil momentum $`\delta `$ of atomic nucleus in the material is calculated as twice the right hand side of the expression (5). The ordinary recoil momentum is $`\delta _0m^2E/(2E_1E_2)=0.1`$ eV/c at $`E10^{13}`$ eV, which corresponds to quite a small energy transfer to the recoiled atomic nucleus of a large mass. When $`\xi _\gamma =1`$ and $`E>E_c`$, $`\delta `$ must be larger than $`\delta _0`$ but remains reasonably small so that the process would not be largely affected. When $`\xi _\gamma =1`$ and $`E>E_c`$, $`\delta `$ appears negative, the recoil being in the opposite direction to the initial $`\gamma `$-ray. There are generally several processes which compete the pair creation and for which the invariance violation is of different strengths. The consequence may appear as observation of an anomalous behaviour of very high energy radiations.

The author thanks the anonymous referee for the comments and advice that have brought the revised form and content of the present paper.