Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements

All global symmetries are expected to be explicitly broken by quantum gravitational effects, and yet may play an important role in Particle Physics and Cosmology. As such, any evidence for a well-preserved global symmetry would give insight into an important feature of gravity. We argue that a recen...

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Autores principales:	James Alvey, Miguel Escudero Abenza
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0dcfe9d14183485597faf3a8f3a60b5a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0dcfe9d14183485597faf3a8f3a60b5a2021-12-04T04:32:35ZConstraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements0370-269310.1016/j.physletb.2021.136752https://doaj.org/article/0dcfe9d14183485597faf3a8f3a60b5a2021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269321006924https://doaj.org/toc/0370-2693All global symmetries are expected to be explicitly broken by quantum gravitational effects, and yet may play an important role in Particle Physics and Cosmology. As such, any evidence for a well-preserved global symmetry would give insight into an important feature of gravity. We argue that a recently reported 2.4σ detection of cosmic birefringence in the Cosmic Microwave Background could be the first observational indication of a well-preserved (although spontaneously broken) global symmetry in nature. A compelling solution to explain this measurement is a very light pseudoscalar field that interacts with electromagnetism. In order for gravitational effects not to lead to large corrections to the mass of this scalar field, we show that the breaking of global symmetries by gravity should be bounded above. Finally, we highlight that any bound of this type would have clear implications for the construction of theories of quantum gravity, as well as for many particle physics scenarios.James AlveyMiguel Escudero AbenzaElsevierarticlePhysicsQC1-999ENPhysics Letters B, Vol 823, Iss , Pp 136752- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Physics QC1-999 James Alvey Miguel Escudero Abenza Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
description	All global symmetries are expected to be explicitly broken by quantum gravitational effects, and yet may play an important role in Particle Physics and Cosmology. As such, any evidence for a well-preserved global symmetry would give insight into an important feature of gravity. We argue that a recently reported 2.4σ detection of cosmic birefringence in the Cosmic Microwave Background could be the first observational indication of a well-preserved (although spontaneously broken) global symmetry in nature. A compelling solution to explain this measurement is a very light pseudoscalar field that interacts with electromagnetism. In order for gravitational effects not to lead to large corrections to the mass of this scalar field, we show that the breaking of global symmetries by gravity should be bounded above. Finally, we highlight that any bound of this type would have clear implications for the construction of theories of quantum gravity, as well as for many particle physics scenarios.
format	article
author	James Alvey Miguel Escudero Abenza
author_facet	James Alvey Miguel Escudero Abenza
author_sort	James Alvey
title	Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
title_short	Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
title_full	Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
title_fullStr	Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
title_full_unstemmed	Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
title_sort	constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/0dcfe9d14183485597faf3a8f3a60b5a
work_keys_str_mv	AT jamesalvey constraintsonglobalsymmetrybreakinginquantumgravityfromcosmicbirefringencemeasurements AT miguelescuderoabenza constraintsonglobalsymmetrybreakinginquantumgravityfromcosmicbirefringencemeasurements
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Constraints on global symmetry breaking in quantum gravity from cosmic birefringence measurements

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