Observational tests of open strings in braneworld scenarios

Abstract

We consider some consequences of describing the gauge and matter degrees of freedom in our universe by open strings, as suggested by the braneworld scenario. We focus on changes in causal structure described by the open string metric and investigate their observational implications. The causal structure is described not by the usual metric gμν, but instead by the open string metric, that incorporates the electromagnetic background and the NS-NS two-form, Gμν = gμν−(2πα′)2(F2)μν. The speed of light on the brane is now slower when propagating along directions transverse to electromagnetic fields or NS-NS two-forms, so that Lorentz invariance is explicitly broken. We describe experiments designed to detect the predicted variations in the open string causal structure on the brane: interferometric laboratory based experiments, experiments exploiting astrophysical electromagnetic fields, and experiments that rely on modification to special relativity. We show that current technology cannot probe beyond open string lengths of 10−13 cm, corresponding to MeV string scales. We also point out that in a braneworld scenario, constraints on large scale electromagnetic fields together with a modest phenomenological bound on the NS-NS two-form naturally lead to a bound on the scale of canonical noncommutativity that is two orders of magnitude below the string length. We show that theoretical constraints on the NS-NS two-form bound the scale of noncommutativity to be well below the Planck length, (|θ|max)(1/2) < 10−35cm × (TeV/stringscale)2.