Related papers: New constraints on quantum foam models from X-ray …
One aspect of the quantum nature of spacetime is its "foaminess" at very small scales. Many models for spacetime foam are defined by the accumulation power $\alpha$, which parameterizes the rate at which Planck-scale spatial uncertainties…
Quantum fluctuations can endow spacetime with a foamy structure. In this review article we discuss our various proposals to observationally constrain models of spacetime foam. One way is to examine if the light wave-front from a distant…
Plausibly spacetime is "foamy" on small distance scales, due to quantum fluctuations. We elaborate on the proposal to detect spacetime foam by looking for seeing disks in the images of distant quasars and AGNs. This is a null test in the…
If spacetime undergoes quantum fluctuations, an electromagnetic wavefront will acquire uncertainties in direction as well as phase as it propagates through spacetime. These uncertainties can show up in interferometric observations of…
At Planck-scale, spacetime is "foamy" due to quantum fluctuations predicted by quantum gravity. Here we consider the possibility of using spacetime foam-induced phase incoherence of light from distant galaxies and gamma-ray bursters to…
It was recently proposed to use extra-galactic point sources to constrain space-time quantum fluctuations in the universe. In these proposals, the fundamental "fuzziness" of distance caused by space-time quantum fluctuations have been…
Context: Strings and other alternative theories describing the quantum properties of space-time suggest that space-time could present a foamy structure and also that, in certain cases, quantum gravity (QG) may manifest at energies much…
Extra-galactic sources of photons have been used to constrain space-time quantum fluctuations in the Universe. In these proposals, the fundamental "fuzziness" of distance caused by space-time quantum fluctuations has been directly…
Spacetime is foamy due to quantum fluctuations. Various gedanken experiments show that distances fluctuate by amounts consistent with the holographic principle, hence the name "holographic quantum foam" (HQF). One important prediction of…
Aims. The small-scale nature of spacetime can be tested with observations of distant quasars. We comment on a recent paper by Tamburini et al. (A&A, 533, 71) which claims that Hubble Space Telescope observations of the most distant quasars…
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…
A satisfactory theory of quantum gravity may necessitate a drastic modification of our perception of space-time, by giving it a foamy structure at distances comparable to the Planck length. It is argued in this essay that the experimental…
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.…
A satisfactory theory of quantum gravity will very likely require modification of our classical perception of space-time, perhaps by giving it a 'foamy' structure at scales of order the Planck length. This is expected to modify the…
Due to quantum fluctuations, spacetime is probably ``foamy'' on very small scales. We propose to detect this texture of spacetime foam by looking for core-halo structures in the images of distant quasars. We find that the Very Large…
Quantum fluctuations in spacetime can, in some cases, lead to distortion in astronomical images of faraway objects. In particular, a stochastic model of quantum gravity predicts an accumulated fluctuation in the path length $\Delta L$ with…
Due to quantum fluctuations, probed at small scales, spacetime is very complicated -- something akin in complexity to a turbulent froth which the late John Wheeler dubbed quantum foam, aka spacetime foam. Our recent work suggests that (1)…
We discuss a recent provocative suggestion by Amelino-Camelia and others that classical spacetime may break down into ``quantum foam'' on distance scales many orders of magnitude larger than the Planck length, leading to effects which could…
The expectation that it should not be possible to gain experimental insight on the structure of space-time at Planckian distance scales has been recently challenged by several studies. With respect to space-time fluctuations, one of the…
Very high energy, short wavelength, neutrinos may interact with the space-time foam predicted by theories of quantum gravity. They would propagate like light through a crystal lattice and be delayed, with the delay depending on the energy.…