Related papers: Planck-Length Phenomenology
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…
A handful of recent papers has been devoted to proposals of experiments capable of testing some candidate quantum-gravity phenomena. These lecture notes emphasize those aspects that are most relevant to the questions that come to mind when…
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…
After a brief review of the first phase of development of Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology, I argue that this research line is now ready to enter a more advanced phase: while at first it was legitimate to resort to heuristic order-of-magnitude…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
An important open question in fundamental physics concerns the nature of spacetime at distance scales associated with the Planck length. The widespread belief that probing such distances necessitates Planck-energy particles has impeded…
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…
Quantum gravity theory is untested experimentally. Could it be tested with tabletop experiments? While the common feeling is pessimistic, a detailed inquiry shows it possible to sidestep the onerous requirement of localization of a probe on…
The observations of photons from the BL Lac object Mk501 with energies above 10 TeV and of cosmic rays with energies above the GZK threshold appear to be inconsistent with conventional theories. Remarkably, among the recent new-physics…
An overview of space tests searching for small deviations from special relativity arising at the Planck scale is given. Potential high-sensitivity space-based experiments include ones with atomic clocks, masers, and electromagnetic…
Atom interferometers can be used to study phenomena leading to irreversibility and dissipation, induced by the dynamics of fundamental objects (strings and branes) at a large mass scale. Using an effective, but physically consistent…
The extreme smallness of both the Planck length, on the one side, and the ratio of the gravitational to the electrical forces between, say, two electrons, on the other side has led to a widespread belief that the realm of quantum gravity is…
New quantum degrees of freedom of space-time, originating at the Planck scale, could create a coherent indeterminacy and noise in the transverse position of massive bodies on macroscopic scales. An experiment is under development at…
All existing experimental results are currently interpreted using classical geometry. However, there are theoretical reasons to suspect that at a deeper level, geometry emerges as an approximate macroscopic behavior of a quantum system at…
Recent progress in quantum gravity and string theory has raised interest among scientists to whether or not nature behaves discretely at the Planck scale. There are two attitudes twoards this discretenes i.e. top-down and bottom-up…
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…