MG12 - Talk detail
 

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Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance for Spin-1/2 Particle Motion in Curved Space-Time with Applications to Muon Decay

This paper explores the properties of the Pauli-Lubanski spin vector for the general motion of spin-1/2 particles in curved space-time. Building upon previously determined results in flat space-time, it is shown that the associated Casimir scalar for spin possesses both gravitational contributions and frame-dependent contributions due to non-inertial motion, where the latter represents a possible quantum violation of Lorentz invariance that becomes significant at the Compton wavelength scale. When applied to muon decay near the event horizon of a microscopic Kerr black hole, it is shown that its differential cross section is strongly affected by curvature, with particular sensitivity to changes in the black hole's spin angular momentum. In the absence of curvature, the non-inertial contributions to the decay spectrum are also identified and explored in detail, where its potential for observation is highest for large electron opening angles. It is further shown how possible contributions to noncommutative geometry can emerge from within this formalism at some undetermined length scale. Surprisingly, while the potential exists to identify noncommutative effects in muon decay, the relevant terms make no contribution to the decay spectrum, for reasons which remain unknown.

Classical Spinning Particle Interactions in Black Hole Space-Time Backgrounds

This presentation describes an analytic perturbation approach to the dynamics of a classical spinning particle, according to the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon (MPD) equations of motion, with an application to circular motion around astrophysical black holes. The formalism is established in terms of a power series expansion with respect to the particle's spin magnitude, where the particle's kinematic and dynamical degrees are expressed in a completely general form that can be constructed to infinite order in the expansion parameter. It is further shown that the particle's squared mass and spin magnitude can shift due to a classical analogue of radiative corrections that arise from spin-curvature coupling. The mass and spin shift contributions are dependent on the initial conditions of the particle's spin orientation. Explicit expressions for the MPD equations are determined for the cases of circular motion near the event horizon of both a Kerr black hole, and a radially accreting or radiating Schwarzschild black hole, described in terms of the Vaidya metric. A preliminary analysis of the stability properties of the orbital motion, in both the Kerr and Vaidya backgrounds due to spin-curvature interactions, is also presented.

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