Related papers: The Soccer-Ball Problem
It is shown that the joint measurements of some physical variables corresponding to commuting operators performed on pre- and post-selected quantum systems invariably disturb each other. The significance of this result for recent proofs of…
Several approaches to quantum gravity suggest that Lorentz invariance will be broken at high energy. This can lead to modified dispersion relations for wave propagation, which can be concretely realized in effective field theories where the…
In recent years, the breakdown of spacetime symmetries has been identified as a promising research field in the context of Planck-scale phenomenology. For example, various theoretical approaches to the quantum-gravity problem are known to…
A new approach to the cosmological constant problem is proposed by modifying Einstein's theory of general relativity, using instead a scalar-tensor theory of gravitation. This theory of gravity crucially incorporates the concept of quantum…
Quantum gravity is likely the deepest problem facing current physics. While traditionally associated with short distance nonrenormalizability, it is evident that the long distance problem of unitarity, arising at high energies with black…
Broad arguments indicate that quantum gravity should have a minimal length scale. In this essay we construct a minimum length model by generalizing the time-position and energy-momentum operators while keeping much of the structure of…
We set up a covariant renormalisation group equation on a foliated spacetime which preserves background diffeomorphism symmetry. As a first application of the new formalism, we study the effect of quantum fluctuations in Lorentz symmetry…
Quantum gravity is studied in a semiclassical approximation and it is found that to first order in the Planck length the effect of quantum gravity is to make the low energy effective spacetime metric energy dependent. The diffeomorphism…
Motivated by ideas about quantum gravity, a tremendous amount of effort over the past decade has gone into testing Lorentz invariance in various regimes. This review summarizes both the theoretical frameworks for tests of Lorentz invariance…
Special relativity asserts that physical phenomena appear the same for all inertially moving observers. This symmetry, called Lorentz symmetry, relates long wavelengths to short ones: if the symmetry is exact it implies that spacetime must…
Quantum gravity is sometimes considered as a kind of metaphysical speculation. In this review, we show that, although still extremely difficult to reach, observational signatures can in fact be expected. The early universe is an invaluable…
We construct effective field theories in which gravity is modified via spontaneous breaking of local Lorentz invariance. This is a gravitational analogue of the Higgs mechanism. These theories possess additional graviton modes and modified…
The relation between symmetry reduction before and after quantization of a field theory is discussed using a toy model: the axisymmetric Klein-Gordon field. We consider three possible notions of symmetry at the quantum level: invariance…
A fundamental spacetime scale in the universe leads to noncommutative spacetime and thence to a modified energy - momentum dispersion relation or equivalently to a modification of Lorentz symmetry as shown by the author and others. This…
The paper deals with a modified theory of gravity and the cosmological consequences. Instead of concerning the field equations directly, we modify a conformally-related and equivalent equation, such that a spontaneous symmetry breaking at…
Lorentz transformation of the reduced helicity density matrix for a massive spin 1/2 particle is investigated in the framework of relativistic quantum information theory for the first time. The corresponding helicity entropy is calculated,…
Many of the most important astrophysical tests of Lorentz symmetry also assume that energy-momentum of the observed particles is exactly conserved. In the causal set approach to quantum gravity a particular kind of Lorentz symmetry holds…
The problem of finding the quantum theory of the gravitational field, and thus understanding what is quantum spacetime, is still open. One of the most active of the current approaches is loop quantum gravity. Loop quantum gravity is a…
A status report is given of some recent theoretical and experimental investigations looking for signals of Lorentz violation in QED. Experiments with light, charged particles, and atoms have exceptional sensitivity to small shifts in energy…
In recent years, Loop Quantum Gravity has emerged as a solid candidate for a nonperturbative quantum theory of General Relativity. It is a background independent theory based on a description of the gravitational field in terms of…