Physical Constraints on Quantum Deformations of Spacetime Symmetries

Abstract: In this work we study the deformations into Lie bialgebras of the three relativistic Lie algebras: de Sitter, Anti-de Sitter and Poincar\'e, which describe the symmetries of the three maximally symmetric spacetimes. These algebras represent the centrepiece of the kinematics of special relativity (and its analogue in (Anti-)de Sitter spacetime), and provide the simplest framework to build physical models in which inertial observers are equivalent. Such a property can be expected to be preserved by Quantum Gravity, a theory which should build a length/energy scale into the microscopic structure of spacetime. Quantum groups, and their infinitesimal version Lie bialgebras', allow to encode such a scale into a noncommutativity of the algebra of functions over the group (and over spacetime, when the group acts on a homogeneous space). In 2+1 dimensions we have evidence that the vacuum state of Quantum Gravity is one suchnoncommutative spacetime' whose symmetries are described by a Lie bialgebra. It is then of great interest to study the possible Lie bialgebra deformations of the relativistic Lie algebras. In this paper, we develop a classification of such deformations in 2, 3 and 4 spacetime dimensions, based on physical requirements based on dimensional analysis, on various degrees of manifest isotropy' (which implies that certain symmetries, i.e. Lorentz transformations or rotations, aremore classical'), and on discrete symmetries like P and T. On top of a series of new results in 3 and 4 dimensions, we find a no-go theorem for the Lie bialgebras in 4 dimensions, which singles out the well-known $\kappa$-deformation' as the only one that depends on the first power of the Planck length, or, alternatively, that possessesmanifest' spatial isotropy.