Related papers: Lack of observational evidence for quantum structu…
Microscopic fluctuations inherent to the fuzziness of spacetime at the Planck scale might accumulate in wavefronts propagating a cosmological distance and lead to noticeable blurring in an image of a pointlike source. Distant quasars viewed…
The space-time metric is widely believed to be subject to stochastic fluctuations induced by quantum gravity at the Planck scale. This work is based on two different phenomenological approaches being currently made to this topic, and…
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…
We review a few topics in Planck-scale physics, with emphasis on possible manifestations in relatively low energy. The selected topics include quantum fluctuations of spacetime, their cumulative effects, uncertainties in energy-momentum…
Using a \emph{gedanken} experiment providing presumably a minimal inaccuracy the uncertainty contributions to the space-time measurement are precisely evaluated for clock and mirror respectively. The resulting expression of minimal…
It has been suggested that the fuzzy nature of spacetime at the Planck scale may cause lightwaves to lose phase coherence, and if severe enough this could blur images of distant point-like sources sufficiently that they do not form an Airy…
The recent paper of Lieu and Hillman [1] that a possible, (birefringence like) phase difference ambiguity coming from Planck effects would alter stellar images of distant sources is questioned. Instead for {\em division of wavefront}…
I briefly review some scenarios for the role of the Planck length in quantum gravity. In particular, I examine the differences between the schemes in which quantum gravity is expected to introduce a maximum acceleration and the schemes in…
We apply the effective field theory approach to the coupled metric-inflaton system, in order to investigate the impact of higher dimension operators on the spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations in the short-wavelength regime. In both…
Several recent studies have considered the implications for astrophysics and cosmology of some possible nonclassical properties of spacetime at the Planck scale. The new effects, such as a Planck-scale-modified energy-momentum (dispersion)…
Although we lack complete understanding of quantum aspects of gravitation, it is usually agreed, using general arguments, that a final quantum gravity theory will endow space and time with some (fundamental or effective) notion of…
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…
Several approaches to the quantum-gravity problem predict that spacetime should be "fuzzy", but have been so far unable to provide a crisp physical characterization of this notion. An intuitive picture of spacetime fuzziness has been…
The implementation of a Planck-scale high frequency and short wavelength cutoff in quantum theories on expanding backgrounds may have potentially nontrivial implications, such as the breaking of local Lorentz invariance and the existence of…
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…
In this article, the possibility of generating non-classical light due to Planck-scale effects is considered. For this purpose, a widely studied model of deformation of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation is applied to single-mode and…
Over the last few years the study of possible Planck-scale departures from classical Lorentz symmetry has been one of the most active areas of quantum-gravity research. We now have a satisfactory description of the fate of Lorentz symmetry…
I review the current status of phenomenological programs inspired by quantum-spacetime research. I stress in particular the significance of results establishing that certain data analyses provide sensitivity to effects introduced genuinely…
This review consists of two parts. The first part establishes certain astrophysical bounds on the smoothness of classical spacetime. Some of the best bounds to date are based on the absence of vacuum Cherenkov radiation in ultrahigh-energy…
Inflation can act as a space-time microscope for Planck or string scale effects, leaving potentially observable traces in the primordial perturbation spectrum. I discuss two frameworks that were used recently to study this phenomenon:…