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Many current models which "violate Lorentz symmetry" do so via a vector or tensor field which takes on a vacuum expectation value, thereby spontaneously breaking the underlying Lorentz symmetry of the Lagrangian. One common way to construct such a model is to posit a smooth potential for this field; the natural low-energy solution of such a model would then be excepted to have the tensor field near the minimum of its potential. It is shown in this work that some such models, while appearing well-posed at the level of the Lagrangian, have a Hamiltonian which is singular on the vacuum manifold and are therefore ill-posed. I illustrate this pathology for an antisymmetric rank-2 tensor field, and find sufficient conditions under which this pathology occurs for more general field theories., Comment: 11 pages

In conventional gravitational physics, the so-called "bootstrap procedure" can be used to extrapolate from a linear model of a rank-2 tensor to a full non-linear theory of gravity (i.e., general relativity) via a coupling to the stress-energy of the model. In this work, I extend this procedure to a "Lorentz-violating" gravitational model, in which the linear tensor field and the matter fields "see" different metrics due to a coupling between the tensor field and a background vector field. The resulting model can be thought of as a generalized Proca theory with a non-minimal coupling to conventional matter. It has a similar linearized limit to the better-known "bumblebee model", but differs at higher orders in perturbation theory. Its effects are unobservable in FRW spacetimes, but are expected to be important in anisotropic cosmological spacetimes., Comment: 24 pages

Many current models which "violate Lorentz symmetry" do so via a vector or tensor field which takes on a vacuum expectation value, thereby spontaneously breaking the underlying Lorentz symmetry of the Lagrangian. To obtain a tensor field with this behavior, one can posit a smooth potential for this field, in which case it would be expected to lie near the minimum of its potential. Alternately, one can enforce a non-zero tensor value via a Lagrange multiplier. The present work explores the relationship between these two types of theories in the case of vector models. In particular, the na\"ive expectation that a Lagrange multiplier "kills off" one degree of freedom via its constraint does not necessarily hold for vector models that already contain primary constraints. It is shown that a Lagrange multiplier can only reduce the degrees of freedom of a model if the field-space function defining the vacuum manifold commutes with the primary constraints., Comment: 11 pages. v2: added discussion of previous work in Ref. [19]

If Lorentz symmetry is broken, it must have occurred dynamically, via a vector or tensor field whose potential energy forces it to take on a non-zero background expectation value "in vacuum". If the set of minima of this potential (the vacuum manifold) has a non-trivial topology, then there can arise topological defects: stable solutions in which the field approaches different potential minima as we go to infinity in different directions. I discuss the current status of research into these topological defects in the context of Lorentz symmetry breaking, including recent results concerning the birefringent light-bending of monopole solutions, and the search for models supporting cosmic-string and domain-wall defects.

I present a topological defect solution that arises in a theory where Lorentz symmetry is spontaneously broken by a rank-two antisymmetric tensor field, and I discuss its observational signatures., 4 pages, 1 figure

I discuss the possibility of topological defect solutions in field theories containing a tensor field which spontaneously breaks Lorentz symmetry. I find that for theories of a tensor with rank r, 19 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. v2: added references

Spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking can occur when the dynamics of a tensor field cause it to take on a non-zero expectation value in vacuo, thereby providing one or more "preferred directions" in spacetime. Couplings between such fields and spacetime curvature will then affect the dynamics of the metric, leading to interesting gravitational effects. Bailey & Kostelecky developed a post-Newtonian formalism that, under certain conditions concerning the field's couplings and stress-energy, allows for the analysis of gravitational effects in the presence of Lorentz symmetry breaking. We perform a systematic survey of vector models of spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking. We find that a two-parameter class of vector models, those with kinetic terms we call "pseudo-Maxwell," can be successfully analyzed under the Bailey-Kostelecky formalism, and that one of these two "dimensions" in parameter space has not yet been explored as a possible mechanism of spontaneous Lorentz symmetry breaking., 12 pages, RevTeX format. v2: fixed typos, added footnotes to match PRD version

The breaking of Lorentz symmetry via a dynamical mechanism, with a tensor field which takes on a non-zero expectation value in vacuum, has been a subject of significant research activity in recent years. In certain models of this type, the perturbations of the "Lorentz-violating field" about this background may be identified with known forces. I present the results of applying this interpretation to the "generalized bumblebee models" found in a prior work. In this model, the perturbations of a Lorentz-violating vector field can be interpreted as a photon field. However, the speed of propagation of this "bumblebee photon" is direction-dependent and differs from the limiting speed of conventional matter, leading to measurable physical effects. Bounds on the parameters of this theory can then be derived from resonator experiments, accelerator physics, and cosmic ray observations., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables. v2: revised appendix on photon lifetime; version to appear in PRD

In recent years, a number of alternative theories of gravity have been proposed as possible resolutions of certain cosmological problems or as toy models for possible but heretofore unobserved effects. However, the implications of such theories for the stability of structures such as stars have not been fully investigated. We use our "generalized variational principle", described in a previous work, to analyze the stability of static spherically symmetric solutions to spherically symmetric perturbations in three such alternative theories: Carroll et al.'s f(R) gravity, Jacobson & Mattingly's "Einstein-aether theory", and Bekenstein's TeVeS. We find that in the presence of matter, f(R) gravity is highly unstable; that the stability conditions for spherically symmetric curved vacuum Einstein-aether backgrounds are the same as those for linearized stability about flat spacetime, with one exceptional case; and that the "kinetic terms" of vacuum TeVeS are indefinite in a curved background, leading to an instability., ReVTex; 20 pages, 3 figures. v2: references added, submitted to PRD; v3: expanded discussion of TeVeS; v4: minor typos corrected (version to appear in PRD)

We present a general method for the analysis of the stability of static, spherically symmetric solutions to spherically symmetric perturbations in an arbitrary diffeomorphism covariant Lagrangian field theory. Our method involves fixing the gauge and solving the linearized gravitational field equations to eliminate the metric perturbation variable in terms of the matter variables. In a wide class of cases--which include f(R) gravity, the Einstein-aether theory of Jacobson and Mattingly, and Bekenstein's TeVeS theory--the remaining perturbation equations for the matter fields are second order in time. We show how the symplectic current arising from the original Lagrangian gives rise to a symmetric bilinear form on the variables of the reduced theory. If this bilinear form is positive definite, it provides an inner product that puts the equations of motion of the reduced theory into a self-adjoint form. A variational principle can then be written down immediately, from which stability can be tested readily. We illustrate our method in the case of Einstein's equation with perfect fluid matter, thereby re-deriving, in a systematic manner, Chandrasekhar's variational principle for radial oscillations of spherically symmetric stars. In a subsequent paper, we will apply our analysis to f(R) gravity, the Einstein-aether theory, and Bekenstein's TeVeS theory., Comment: 13 pages; submitted to Phys. Rev. D. v2: changed formatting, added conclusion, corrected sign conventions

Within the context of loop quantum gravity there are several operators which measure geometry quantities. This work examines two of these operators, volume and angle, to study quantum geometry at a single spin network vertex - ``an atom of geometry.'' Several aspects of the angle operator are examined in detail including minimum angles, level spacing, and the distribution of angles. The high spin limit of the volume operator is also studied for monochromatic vertices. The results show that demands of the correct scaling relations between area and volume and requirements of the expected behavior of angles in three dimensional flat space require high-valence vertices with total spins of approximately 10^20., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures