Abstract. An elementary account on the origins of cosmic chaos in an open and multiply connected universe is given; there is a finite region in the open 3-space in which the world-lines of galaxies are chaotic, and the mixing taking place in this chaotic nucleus of the universe provides a mechanism to create equidistribution. The galaxy background defines a distinguished frame of reference and a unique cosmic time order; in this context superluminal signal transfer is studied. Tachyons are described by a real Proca field with negative mass square, coupled to a current of subluminal matter. Estimates on tachyon mixing in the geometric optics limit are derived. The potential of a static point source in this field theory is a damped periodic function. We treat this tachyon potential as a perturbation of the Coulomb potential, and study its effects on energy levels in hydrogenic systems. By comparing the induced level shifts to high-precision Lamb shift measurements and QED calculations, we suggest a tachyon mass of 2.1 keV/c 2 and estimate the tachyonic coupling strength to subluminal matter. The impact of the tachyon field on ground state hyperfine transitions in hydrogen and muonium is investigated. Bounds on atomic transition rates effected by tachyon radiation as well as estimates on the spectral energy density of a possible cosmic tachyon background radiation are derived.PACS. 05.45.Ac Low-dimensional chaos -32.10.Fn Fine and hyperfine structure -98.70.Vc Background radiations
A new interaction mechanism of superluminal particles with matter is suggested. Tachyons are described by a real Proca field with negative mass square, coupled to a current of subluminal matter. The potential of a static point source in this field theory is a damped periodic function with 1/r-decay. We treat this potential as a perturbation of the Coulomb potential, and study its effects on cross-sections and energy levels. In the limit of large impact parameter, the periodicity of the potential has a pronounced effect on the classical cross-section, which gets singular at the accumulating extrema of the scattering angle. In this limit we define the cross-section wave mechanically, by semiclassical rainbow scattering. The impact of the tachyon potential on the energy levels of hydrogen and hydrogenic ions is calculated by means of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization. Estimates for the tachyon mass (3 keV) and the coupling constant of the tachyon potential are derived on the basis of high-precision Lamb shift measurements.
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