Related papers: Stringy Space-Time Foam and High-Energy Cosmic Pho…
Quantum gravitational effects may induce stochastic fluctuations in the structure of space-time, to produce a characteristic foamy structure. It has been known for some time now that these fluctuations may have observable consequences for…
Modern ideas in quantum gravity predict the possibility of Lorenz Invariance Violation (LIV) manifested e.g. by energy dependent modification of standard relativistic dispersion relation. In a recent paper Jacob and Piran proposed that time…
Astrophysical observations provide a unique opportunity to test possible signatures of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), due to the high energies and long distances involved. In quantum theory of gravity, one may expect the modification…
The "foamy" nature of spacetime at the Planck scale was an idea first introduced by John Wheeler in the 1950s. And for the last twenty years or so it has been debated whether those inherent uncertainties in time and path-length might also…
We shall review methods used in the description of decoherence on particle probes in experiments due to surrounding media. This will include conventional media as well as a model for space-time foam arising from non-critical string theory.
Quantum-gravity (QG) effects might generate Lorentz invariance violation by the interaction of energetic particles with the foamy structure of the space-time. As a consequence, particles may not travel at the universal speed of light. We…
In a D-brane model of space-time foam, there are contributions to the dark energy that depend on the D-brane velocities and on the density of D-particle defects. The latter may also reduce the speeds of photons linearly with their energies,…
Modifications inspired by quantum gravity in the kinematics of special relativity can manifest in various ways, including anomalies in the time of flight of massless particles and the emergence of decay channels for otherwise stable…
Some Quantum Gravity (QG) theories allow for a violation of Lorentz invariance (LIV), manifesting as a dependence of the velocity of light in vacuum on its energy. If such a dependence exists, then photons of different energies emitted…
We revisit the idea that cosmic strings could source fast radio bursts by taking into account Lorentz boosts and a weaker assumption about the scaling law for the energy of particle decay. We show that the distance relation and time scale,…
Doubly Special Relativity (DSR) theories consider (quantum-gravity motivated) deformations of the symmetries of special relativity compatible with a relativity principle. The existence of time delays for massless particles, one of their…
Due to quantum fluctuations, spacetime is foamy on small scales. The degree of foaminess is found to be consistent with the holographic principle. One way to detect spacetime foam is to look for halos in the images of distant quasars.…
We discuss theories in which the standard-model particles are localized on a brane embedded in space-time with large compact extra dimensions, whereas gravity propagates in the bulk. In addition to the ground state corresponding to a…
String theory is canonically accompanied with a space-time interpretation which determines S-matrix-like observables, and connects to the standard physics at low energies in the guise of local effective field theory. Recently, we have…
Broken spacetime symmetries might emerge from a fundamental physical theory. The effective low-energy theory might be expected to exhibit violations of supersymmetry and Lorentz invariance. Some illustrative models which combine…
Analogue models of gravity have provided an experimentally realizable test field for our ideas on quantum field theory in curved spacetimes but they have also inspired the investigation of possible departures from exact Lorentz invariance…
The topic of Lorentz invariance violation is a fundamental question in physics that has taken on particular interest in theoretical explorations of quantum gravity scenarios. I discuss various gamma-ray observations that give limits on…
Spacetime foam manifests itself in a variety of ways. It has some attributes of a turbulent fluid. It is the source of the holographic principle. Cosmologically it may play a role in explaining why the energy density has the critical value,…
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…
Various approaches to quantum gravity suggest the possibility of violation of Lorentz symmetry at very high energies. In these cases we expect a modification at low energies of the dispersion relation of photons that contains extra powers…