Background Dependent Lorentz Violation from String Theory

Abstract

We revisit Lorentz violation in the Type IIB string theory with D3-branes and D7-branes. We study the relativistic particle velocities in details, and show that there exist both subluminal and superluminal particle propagations. In particular, the additional contributions to the particle velosity δv\equiv (v-c)/c from string theory is proportional to both the particle energy and the D3-brane number density, and is inversely proportional to the string scale. Thus, we can realize the background dependent Lorentz violation naturally by varying the D3-brane number density in space time. To explain the superluminal neutrino propagations in the OPERA and MINOS experiments, the string scale should be around 10^5 GeV. With very tiny D3-brane number density on the interstellar scale, we can also explain the time delays for the high energy photons compared to the low energy photons in the MAGIC, HESS, and FERMI experiments simultaneously. Interestingly, we can automatically satisfy all the stringent constraints from the synchrotron radiation of the Crab Nebula, the SN1987a observations on neutrinos, and the cosmic ray experiments on charged leptons. We also address the possible phenomenological challenges to our models from the relevant experiments done on the Earth.