Spontaneous Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance in IIB Matrix Model

We study the IIB matrix model, which is conjectured to be a nonperturbative definition of superstring theory, by introducing an integer deformation parameter nu' which couples to the imaginary part of the effective action induced by fermions. The deformed IIB matrix model continues to be well-defined for arbitrary nu’, and it preserves gauge invariance, Lorentz invariance, and the cluster property. We study the model at `nu’ = infinity using a saddle-point analysis, and show that ten-dimensional Lorentz invariance is spontaneously broken at least down to an eight-dimensional one. We argue that it is likely that the remaining eight-dimensional Lorentz invariance is further broken, which can be checked by integrating over the saddle-point configurations using standard Monte Carlo simulation.