A simple model of pointlike spacetime defects and implications for photon propagation

Understand

A model in which pointlike defects are randomly embedded in Minkowski spacetime is considered.

• The distribution of spacetime defects is constructed to be Lorentz-invariant.
• It does not introduce a preferred reference frame, because it is based on a sprinkling process.
• A field-theoretic action for the photon and a fermion is set up, in which the photon is assumed not to couple to the defects directly, but via a scalar field.