Talk detail

Participant	Baccetti, Valentina
Institution	Victoria University of Wellington - PO box 600 - Wellington - - New Zealand

Session	GT3	Accepted	Yes	Order	4	Time	15:00
Talk	Oral abstract	Title	Inertial frames without the relativity principle: Breaking Lorentz symmetry
Co-authors	Kyle Tate, Matt Visser
Abstract	In this talk we will investigate the concept of inertial frames in the absence of Lorentz invariance by considering, tight connection between the group structure, implied by the relativity principle, and the rules of transformation of space-time - Lorentz or Galileo’s transformations. We modify the relativity principle by discarding the group structure for the transformations between inertial reference frames, while requiring the transformations to be at least linear (to preserve homogeneity). We show that, in theories with a preferred frame (aether), the set of transformations between inertial frames forms a groupoid/pseudogroup instead of a group, this is essential to evading von Ignatowsky’s argument. In order to understand the dynamics, we will also demonstrate that the transformation rules for energy and momentum are in general affine. We will finally focus on two specific and compelling models implementing a “minimalist violation” of Lorentz invariance.