Lorentz symmetry violating Lifshitz-type field theories

Abstract: We discuss the ultraviolet sector of 3+1 dimensional Lifshitz-type anisotropic higher derivative scalar, fermion and gauge field theories, with anisotropy exponent z=3 and with explicit breaking of Lorentz symmetry. By discarding from the action all momentum dependent vertex operators, which is essential to avoid phenomenologically unacceptable deformations of the light cone, we find that renormalizable scalar self-interaction and Yukawa-like couplings are, in general, asymptotically free. However, the requirement of cancelling momentum dependent vertex operators is incompatible with gauge symmetry and, therefore, for this kind of theories, gauge symmetry as well as Lorentz symmetry are recovered only as emergent properties below some energy scale M, that must be constrained from experiments. The quantum corrections to the scalar mass and their impact on the hierarchy problem are also analyzed.