Noncommutative Field Theory and Lorentz Violation

Abstract

The role of Lorentz symmetry in noncommutative field theory is considered. Any realistic noncommutative theory is found to be physically equivalent to a subset of a general Lorentz-violating standard-model extension involving ordinary fields. Some theoretical consequences are discussed. Existing experiments bound the scale of the noncommutativity parameter to (10 TeV)(-2).