Related papers: A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO
Fluctuations play a critical role in cosmology. They are relevant across a range of phenomena from the dynamics of inflation to the formation of structure. In many cases, these fluctuations are coarse grained and follow a Gaussian…
Measurements made with the Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that significant levels of compressive fluctuations exist in the inner heliosheath. Some studies have already been performed with respect to the mirror-mode instability in the…
There are two types of fluctuations in the quantum vacuum: type 1 vacuum fluctuations are on shell and can interact with matter in specific, limited ways that have observable consequences; type 2 vacuum fluctuations are off shell and cannot…
From a combination of probes including the cosmic microwave background (WMAP7+SPT), Hubble constant (HST), baryon acoustic oscillations (SDSS+2dFGRS), and supernova distances (Union2), we have explored the extent to which the constraints on…
The observed magnetic field on the solar surface is characterized by a very complex spatial and temporal behavior. Although feature-tracking algorithms have allowed us to deepen our understanding of this behavior, subjectivity plays an…
Implications of some proposed theories of quantum gravity for neutrino flavor oscillations are explored within the context of modified dispersion relations of special relativity. In particular, approximate expressions for…
In a previous paper (Ref. [1]) the presence of dark energy in our universe was explained as the fingerprint of a comprehensive, much older and expanding multiverse with positive spatial curvature, whose space-time is spanned by this energy,…
Lorentz invariance is the fundamental symmetry of Einstein's theory of special relativity, and has been tested to great level of detail. However, theories of quantum gravity at the Planck scale indicate that Lorentz symmetry may be broken…
In this paper, we calculate the spectrum of scalar field fluctuations in a bouncing, asymptotically flat Universe, and investigate the dependence of the result on changes in the physics on length scales shorter than the Planck length which…
A non-perturbative study on the quantum fluctuations of light ray propagation through a quantum region of spacetime is long overdue. Within the theory of Lorentzian simplicial quantum gravity, we compute the probabilities for a test light…
Understanding the nature of compressible fluctuations in a broad range of turbulent plasmas, from the intracluster medium to the solar wind, has been an active field of research in the past decades. Theoretical frameworks for weakly…
Determining the energy scale of inflation is crucial to understand the nature of inflation in the early Universe. We place observational constraints on the energy scale of the observable part of the inflaton potential by combining the…
A hypothetical photon mass, $m_{\gamma}$, can produce a frequency-dependent vacuum dispersion of light, which leads to an additional time delay between photons with different frequencies when they propagate through a fixed distance. The…
Quantum gravity phenomenology opens up the possibility of probing Planck scale physics. Thus, by exploiting the generic properties that a semiclassical state of the compound system fermions plus gravity should have, an effective dynamics of…
We consider a homogeneous and isotropic Universe, described by the minisuperspace Lagrangian with the scale factor as a generalized coordinate. We show that the energy of a closed Universe is zero. We apply the uncertainty principle to this…
Can a simple microscopic model of space and time demonstrate Special Relativity as the macroscopic (aggregate) behavior of an ensemble ? The question will be investigated in three parts. First, it is shown that the Lorentz transformation…
We consider the presence of cosmic string induced density fluctuations in the universe at temperatures below the electroweak phase transition temperature. Resulting temperature fluctuations can restore the electroweak symmetry locally,…
In present paper we evaluate the fine structure constant variation, that should take place as the Universe expands and its curvature is changed adiabatically. Such variation of the fine structure constant is attributed to an energy losses…
Large-amplitude electrostatic fluctuations are routinely observed by spacecraft upon traversal of collisionless shocks in the heliosphere. Kinetic simulations of shocks have struggled to reproduce the amplitude of such fluctuations,…
In the quantum-gravity literature there has been interest in the possibility that quantum properties of spacetime might affect the energy/momentum dispersion relation. The most used test theory for data analysis is based on a modification…