Related papers: Experimental Challenges for Quantum Gravity
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…
Suppose the usual description of spacetime as a 4-dimensional manifold with a Lorentzian metric breaks down at Planck energies. Can we still construct sensible theoretical models of the universe? Are they testable? Do they lead to a…
I outline motivations for believing that important quantum gravity effects lie beyond the Planck scale at both higher energies and longer distances and times. These motivations arise in part from the study of ultra-high energy scattering,…
The hypothesis of a discrete fabric of the universe--the "Planck scale"--is always on stage, since it solves mathematical and conceptual problems in the infinitely small. However, it clashes with special relativity, which is designed for…
The Planck or the quantum gravity scale, being $16$ orders of magnitude greater than the electroweak scale, is often considered inaccessible by current experimental techniques. However, it was shown recently by one of the current authors…
We show that the running of gravitational couplings, together with a suitable identification of the renormalization group scale can give rise to modified dispersion relations for massive particles. This result seems to be compatible with…
Higher-dimensional theories of the kind which may unify gravitation with particle physics can lead to significant modifications of general relativity. In five dimensions, the vacuum becomes non-standard, and the Weak Equivalence Principle…
3-dimensional gravity coupled to Maxwell (or Klein-Gordon) fields is exactly soluble under the assumption of axi-symmetry. The solution is used to probe several quantum gravity issues. In particular, it is shown that the quantum…
Combining the quantum scale invariance with the absence of new degrees of freedom above the electroweak scale leads to stability of the latter against perturbative quantum corrections. Nevertheless, the hierarchy between the weak and the…
The claim that at the so-called Planck scale our current physics breaks down and a new theory of quantum gravity is required is ubiquitous, but the evidence is shakier than the confidence of those assertions warrants. In this paper, I…
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…
Quantum gravity places important consistency conditions on low-energy effective field theory, such as the absence of global symmetries. These may have important consequences in the search for particle physics beyond the Standard Model. We…
We consider modified dispersion relations in quantum field theory on curved space-time. Such relations, despite breaking the local Lorentz invariance at high energy, are considered in several phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity.…
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…
We review the question of whether the fundamental laws of nature limit our ability to probe arbitrarily short distances. First, we examine what insights can be gained from thought experiments for probes of shortest distances, and summarize…
Planck scale physics represents a future challenge, located between particle physics and general relativity. The Planck scale marks a threshold beyond which the old description of spacetime breaks down and conceptually new phenomena must…
A particular framework for quantum gravity is the doubly special relativity (DSR) formalism that introduces a new observer independent scale (the Planck scale). We resort to the methods of statistical mechanics in this framework to…
A theoretical study is made of conformal factors in certain types of physical theories based on classical differential geometry. Analysis of quantum versions of Weyl's theory suggest that similar field equations should be available in four,…
A program was recently initiated to bridge the gap between the Planck scale physics described by loop quantum gravity and the familiar low energy world. We illustrate the conceptual problems and their solutions through a toy model: quantum…
We review (and extend) the analysis of general theories of all interactions (gravity included) where the mass scales are due to dimensional transmutation. Quantum consistency requires the presence of terms in the action with four…