Is a covariant virtual tachyon viable?

Abstract

Sidney Coleman has noted that superluminal particles or observers would be able to go back in time and have no definite trajectory according to subluminal observers, while not violating Lorentz invariance [1]. Recently, Dragan and Ekert have significantly developed similar ideas even further, which lead to formulation of ``quantum principle of relativity'' that intimately links the two theories [2]. However, field theory descriptions of an on-shell tachyon, described by scalar field $\varphi$ with negative mass squared parameter, lead to violation of basic principles of relativity or quantum mechanics. In this work, we investigate whether purely virtual tachyons can be consistent within the fakeon framework-the only known viable formulation of purely virtual particles. We show that the supports of the real part of the tachyon Feynman propagator and the Wheeler propagator intersect only on the light cone, preventing application of both the fakeon prescription and Wheeler-Feynman absorber mechanism. Interactions with stable Standard Model fields violate the equivalence principle, and we provide quantitative limit on coupling strength of such scenario. Our analysis identifies obstacles to formulating covariant quantum field theory of interacting virtual tachyons.

Comments: 9 pages, 3 figures