Can quantum gravity be exposed in the laboratory?: A tabletop experiment to reveal the quantum foam
Abstract
I propose an experiment that may be performed, with present low temperature and cryogenic technology, to reveal Wheeler's quantum foam. It involves coupling an optical photon's momentum to the center of mass motion of a macroscopic transparent block with parameters such that the latter is displaced in space by approximately a Planck length. I argue that such displacement is sensitive to quantum foam and will react back on the photon's probability of transiting the block. This might allow determination of the precise scale at which quantum fluctuations of space-time become large, and so differentiate between the brane-world and the traditional scenarios of spacetime.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1301.4322,
title = {Can quantum gravity be exposed in the laboratory?: A tabletop experiment to reveal the quantum foam},
author = {Jacob D. Bekenstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.4322},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
Keynote lecture at the international workshop "Horizon of quantum physics: from foundations to quantum enabled technologies", Taipei, October 16, 2012. 10 pages, LaTeX, one jpg figure. To appear in the proceedings edited by F. Scardigli in Foundations of Physics