An IUCSS Summer School on the Standard-Model Extension (SME) will be held in the Physics Department, Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. on June 3-9, 2012. The school is aimed primarily at graduate students and postdocs in theory and experiment who seek a pedagogical introduction to the SME, but more junior and more senior participants are also welcome.

The School format will consist of lectures and discussions. Lectures will provide reviews of theoretical and experimental aspects of Lorentz and CPT violation in the SME context, starting from the basics and progressing to the frontier of this active subject. Discussions will include theoretical methodologies, current observational and experimental constraints, and techniques for data analysis searching for Lorentz and CPT violation. Participants will have the opportunity to showcase their own work at a poster session.

The school is expected to include lectures on the following SME topics:

• Lorentz and CPT violation in field theory:
  • realistic effective field theory, the SME
  • field quantization, spin-statistics, causality, stability
  • quantum-classical correspondence, exact dispersion relations
  • cross sections, decay rates
  • radiative corrections and renormalization, nonpolynomial interactions
  • nonrenormalizable operators
• Lorentz violation in gravity:
  • spontaneous and explicit Lorentz and diffeomorphism breaking
  • Nambu-Goldstone, massive, gauge, auxiliary modes
  • classical solutions, topological defects, spacetime-varying couplings
  • model building
  • mathematical foundations, Finsler geometry
• Phenomenology in the matter, gauge, gravity sectors:
  • clock-comparison measurements on the Earth and in space
  • particle-antiparticle comparisons, antihydrogen spectroscopy
  • other matter tests: astrophysics, colliders, spin-polarized media
  • photon birefringence and dispersion, resonant cavities
  • neutrino oscillations and time of flight
  • meson oscillations and decays
  • second- and third-generation, gauge, Higgs particles
  • laboratory and gravimetric tests of gravity
  • post-newtonian gravity in the solar system and beyond
• Data analysis for Lorentz and CPT violation

There is no registration fee for this School, but online registration on or before April 20, 2012 is required. Due to space limitations the total attendance is likely to be capped, so early registration is advised to avoid disappointment.

Partial support for local housing may be available upon request. Students desiring support should ask a senior scientist to send an email to the School organizer, Mike Snow, describing the need for support.

The Workshop hotel is the Indiana Memorial Union. This is located on campus close to the Physics Department and offers convenient access to the meeting venue. Parking in the hotel lot is free to hotel guests.