Related papers: A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO
The quantum lightcone fluctuations in flat spacetimes with compactified spatial dimensions or with boundaries are examined. The discussion is based upon a model in which the source of the underlying metric fluctuations is taken to be…
Examining the reverse evolution of the universe from the present, long before reaching Planck density dynamics one expects major modifications from the de-coherent thermal equations of state, suggesting a prior phase that has macroscopic…
It is shown that quantum uncertainty of motion in systems controlled mainly by gravity generally grows with orbital timescale $H^{-1}$, and dominates classical motion for trajectories separated by distances less than $\approx H^{-3/5}$ in…
Dynamical scalar fields in an effective four-dimensional field theory are naturally expected to couple to the rest of the theory's degrees of freedom, unless some new symmetry is postulated to suppress these couplings. In particular, a…
This article is based on the Planckon densely piled vacuum model and the principle of cosmology. With the Planck era as initial conditions and including the early inflation, we have solved the Einstein-Friedmann equations to describe the…
By analyzing a gedanken experiment designed to measure the distance $l$ between two spatially separated points, we find that this distance cannot be measured with uncertainty less than $(ll_P^2)^{1/3}$, considerably larger than the Planck…
We propose a quantum model for the vacuum filled of virtual particle pairs. The main originality of this model is to define a density and a life-time of the virtual particles. Compared to the usual QED $(p,E)$ framework, we add here the…
This note proves an upper bound for the fluctuations of a second-class particle in the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process. The proof needs a lower tail estimate for the last-passage growth model associated with the exclusion…
In a class of extra dimensional models with a warped metric and a single brane the photon can be localized on the brane by gravity only. An intriguing feature of these models is the possibility of the photon escaping into the extra…
Schemes of gravitationally induced decoherence are being actively investigated as possible mechanisms for the quantum-to-classical transition. Here, we introduce a decoherence process due to quantum gravity effects. We assume a foamy…
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…
We argue that massive quantum fields source low-frequency long-wavelength metric fluctuations through the quantum fluctuations of their stress-energy, given reasonable assumptions about the analytic structure of its correlators. This can be…
We show that the vacuum permeability and permittivity may originate from the magnetization and the polarization of continuously appearing and disappearing fermion pairs. We then show that if we simply model the propagation of the photon in…
In this work we consider lightcone fluctuation effects in a five-dimensional spacetime arising as a consequence of the compactification of the extra dimension via a quasiperiodic condition, characterized by a phase angle $2\pi\alpha$. By…
Only astronomical observations can effectively probe in space-time the variabil ity of the physical dimensionless constants such as the fine structure constant and proton-to-electron mass ratio, \mu, which are related to fund amental forces…
Any quantum system interacting with a complex environment undergoes decoherence. Empty space is filled with vacuum energy due to matter fields in their ground state and represents an underlying environment that any quantum particle has to…
Quantum or torsion gravity models predict unusual properties of space-time at very short distances. In particular, near the Planck length, around 1E-35 m, empty space may behave as a crystal, singly or doubly refractive. However, this…
A particular form for the quantum indeterminacy of relative spacetime position of events is derived from the limits of measurement possible with Planck wavelength radiation. The indeterminacy predicts fluctuations from a classically defined…
The recently measured cutoff, k_min=[4.34(+/-)0.50]/r_cmb (with r_cmb the comoving distance to the last scattering surface), in the fluctuation spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, appears to disfavor slow-roll inflation and the…
The solar wind provides a natural laboratory for observations of MHD turbulence over extended temporal scales. Here, we apply a model independent method of differencing and rescaling to identify self-similarity in the Probability Density…