Quantum decoherence of photons in the presence of hidden U(1)s

Journal Article · Thu Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.085025· OSTI ID:21409649

Ahlers, M ^[1]; Anchordoqui, L A ^[2]; Gonzalez-Garcia, M C ^[3]

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1. C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3840 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 (United States)
3. Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA), Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Materia, Universitat de Barcelona, 647 Diagonal, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain)

Many extensions of the standard model predict the existence of hidden sectors that may contain unbroken Abelian gauge groups. We argue that in the presence of quantum decoherence photons may convert into hidden photons on sufficiently long time scales and show that this effect is strongly constrained by CMB and supernova data. In particular, Planck-scale suppressed decoherence scales D{proportional_to}{omega}{sup 2}/M{sub Pl} (characteristic for noncritical string theories) are incompatible with the presence of even a single hidden U(1). The absence of photon decoherence in this simple standard model extension complements other strong bounds derived from solar, reactor, and atmospheric neutrinos.

• OSTI ID: 21409649
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.085025; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
NEUTRINOS
PHOTONS
QUANTUM DECOHERENCE
SOLAR NEUTRINOS
STANDARD MODEL
STRING MODELS
STRING THEORY
SYMMETRY BREAKING
U-1 GROUPS
BOSONS
COMPOSITE MODELS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LEPTONS
LIE GROUPS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
M-THEORY
PARTICLE MODELS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUARK MODEL
RADIATIONS
SOLAR PARTICLES
SOLAR RADIATION
STELLAR RADIATION
SYMMETRY GROUPS
U GROUPS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS