Intrinsic measurement errors for the speed of light in vacuum
Quantum Physics
2017-08-08 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
The speed of light in vacuum, one of the most important and precisely measured natural constants, is fixed by convention to m/s. Advanced theories predict possible deviations from this universal value, or even quantum fluctuations of . Combining arguments from quantum parameter estimation theory and classical general relativity, we here establish rigorously the existence of lower bounds on the uncertainty to which the speed of light in vacuum can be determined in a given region of space-time, subject to several reasonable restrictions. They provide a novel perspective on the experimental falsifiability of predictions for the quantum fluctuations of space-time.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1502.04979,
title = {Intrinsic measurement errors for the speed of light in vacuum},
author = {Daniel Braun and Fabienne Schneiter and Uwe R. Fischer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.04979},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
13 pages of RevTex4-1, 2 figures; title has been changed for the final version