Cosmic tachyon background radiation

Abstract

The equilibrium statistical mechanics of a background radiation of superluminal particles is investigated, based on a vectorial wave equation for tachyons of the Proca type. The partition function, the spectral energy density, and the various thermodynamic variables of an ideal Bose gas of tachyons in an open Robertson-Walker cosmology are derived. The negative mass square in the wave equation changes the frequency scaling in the Rayleigh-Jeans law, and there are also significant changes in the low temperature regime as compared to the microwave background, in particular in the caloric and thermal equations of state.