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Universality of Quantum Gravity Corrections

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-12-18 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Quantum Physics

Abstract

We show that the existence of a minimum measurable length and the related Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP), predicted by theories of Quantum Gravity, influence all quantum Hamiltonians. Thus, they predict quantum gravity corrections to various quantum phenomena. We compute such corrections to the Lamb Shift, the Landau levels and the tunnelling current in a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM). We show that these corrections can be interpreted in two ways: (a) either that they are exceedingly small, beyond the reach of current experiments, or (b) that they predict upper bounds on the quantum gravity parameter in the GUP, compatible with experiments at the electroweak scale. Thus, more accurate measurements in the future should either be able to test these predictions, or further tighten the above bounds and predict an intermediate length scale, between the electroweak and the Planck scale.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.5333,
  title  = {Universality of Quantum Gravity Corrections},
  author = {Saurya Das and Elias C. Vagenas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.5333},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

v1: 4 pages, LaTeX; v2: typos corrected, references updated, version to match published version in Physical Review Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:36:18.065Z