# Searching for New Physics with Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays - Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

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Abstract: Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays that produce giant extensive showers of chargedparticles and photons when they interact in the Earth-s atmosphere provide aunique tool to search for new physics. Of particular interest is thepossibility of detecting a very small violation of Lorentz invariance such asmay be related to the structure of space-time near the Planck scale of $\sim10^{-35}$m. We discuss here the possible signature of Lorentz invarianceviolation on the spectrum of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays as compared withpresent observations of giant air showers. We also discuss the possibilities ofusing more sensitive detection techniques to improve searches for Lorentzinvariance violation in the future. Using the latest data from the Pierre AugerObservatory, we derive a best fit to the LIV parameter of $3.0^{+1.5} {-3.0}\times 10^{-23}$, corresponding to an upper limit of $4.5 \times 10^{-23}$ at aproton Lorentz factor of $\sim 2 \times 10^{11}$. This result has fundamentalimplications for quantum gravity models.

Autor: Floyd W. Stecker NASA-GSFC, Sean T. Scully James Madison U.

Fuente: https://arxiv.org/