Doubly-special relativity, also deformed special relativity, is a new theory of special relativity first postulated in a paper by Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, though is at least implicit in a paper of Paul Merriam. In this theory, he postulates that in addition to the speed of light, a characteristic energy scale based on the Planck scale should remain invariant under relativistic transformations. An alternate doubly-special relativity theory, inspired by that of Amelino-Camelia, was proposed later by João Magueijo and Lee Smolin. There exist proposals that these theories may be related to loop quantum gravity. The special theory of relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. Some three centuries earlier, Galileos principle of relativity had stated that all uniform motion was relative, and that there was no absolute and well-defined state of rest... Giovanni Amelino-Camelia is an astrophysicist of the University of Rome who works with gravity. ... The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning swiftness. It is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation in a vacuum, not just visible light. ... In physics, Planck units are physical units of measurement originally proposed by Max Planck. ... Invariant may have meanings invariant (computer science), such as a combination of variables not altered in a loop invariant (mathematics), something unaltered by a transformation invariant (music) invariant (physics) conserved by system symmetry This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share... João Magueijo at the journée de la Science at the EPFL, on the 11th of November 2005 João Magueijo is a cosmologist and lecturer in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London. ... Lee Smolin at Harvard Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has made major contributions to the quantum theory of gravity. ... Loop quantum gravity (LQG), also known as loop gravity and quantum geometry, is a proposed quantum theory of spacetime which attempts to reconcile the seemingly incompatible theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity. ...

One of the motivations for this work is the observation of high-energy cosmic rays that appear to violate the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit: the so-called Oh-My-God particles. Cosmic rays can loosely be defined as energetic particles originating outside of the Earth. ... The Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit (GZK limit) is a theoretical upper limit on the energy of cosmic rays from distant sources. ... Unsolved problems in physics: Why is it that some cosmic rays appear to possess energies that are theoretically too high? On the evening of October 15, 1991, an ultra-high energy cosmic particle was observed over Salt Lake City, Utah. ...

The theory is highly speculative as of first publishing in 2002. The theory is built using a well-established approach in theoretical physics named invariance under transformation, which is colloquially (even in science) called relativistic. Nevertheless the theory is not considered a promising approach by a majority of members of the high-energy physics community. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... In physics, invariants are usually quantities conserved (unchanged) by the symmetries of the physical system. ... Albert Einsteins theory of relativity is a set of two theories in physics: special relativity and general relativity. ... Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and radiation, and the interactions between them. ...

Jafari and Shariati have constructed canonical transformations that relate both the doubly-special relativity theories of Amelino-Camelia and of Magueijo and Smolin to ordinary special relativity. They claim that doubly-special relativity is therefore only a complicated set of coordinates for an old and simple theory. However, all theories are related to free theories by canonical transformations. Therefore supporters of doubly-special relativity may claim that while it is equivalent to ordinary relativity, the momentum and energy coordinates of doubly-special relativity are those that appear in the usual form of the standard model interactions. This implies that ordinary special relativity and doubly-special relativity make distinct physical predictions in high energy processes, and in particular the derivation of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit is not valid if one asserts that quantum electrodynamics takes its usual Maxwell form only in the coordinate systems of doubly-special relativity. In mathematics, a symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold equipped with a closed, nondegenerate 2-form. ... The Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and Interactions For the Standard Model in Cryptography, see Standard Model (cryptography). ... The Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit (GZK limit) is a theoretical upper limit on the energy of cosmic rays from distant sources. ... Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a relativistic quantum field theory of electromagnetism. ...

Literature

• Fabio Cardone, Roberto Mignani , Energy and Geometry: An Introduction to Deformed Special Relativity, World Scientific 2004, ISBN 981-238-728-5

External references

• Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, "Doubly-Special Relativity: First Results and Key Open Problems." Int. J. Mod. Phys. D11 (2002) 1643. Online copy at http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0210063
• Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Doubly-Special Relativity.' http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0207049, a non-technical review
• Paul Merriam, "On the Relativity of Quantum Superpositions" http://www.vivboard.net/~meta/main, February 1998. See also http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/05060228.
• Nosratollah Jafari, Ahmad Shariati, Doubly Special Relativity: A New Relativity or Not? http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0602075
• Doubly-special relativity on arxiv.org