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Are We at the Dawn of Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology?

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Towards Quantum Gravity

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 541))

Abstract

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 inevitably come to mind when one is exposed for the first time to these research developments: How come theory and experiments are finally meeting in spite of all the gloomy forecasts that pervade traditional quantum-gravity reviews? Is this a case of theorists having put forward more and more speculative ideas until a point was reached at which conventional experiments could rule out the proposed phenomena? Or has there been such a remarkable improvement in experimental techniques and ideas that we are now capable of testing plausible candidate quantum-gravity phenomena? These questions are analysed rather carefully for the recent proposals of tests of space-time fuzziness using modern interferometers and tests of dispersion in the quantum-gravity vacuum using observations of gamma rays from distant astrophysical sources. I also briefly discuss other proposed quantum-gravity experiments, including those exploiting the properties of the neutral-kaon system for tests of quantum-gravity-induced decoherence and those using particle-physics accelerators for tests of models with large extra dimensions.

Marie Curie Fellow (permanent address: Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Roma “La Sapienza”, Piazzale Moro 2, Roma, Italy

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  1. Theory Division, CERN, CH-1211, Geneva, Switzerland

    Giovanni Amelino-Camelia

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  1. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław, Pl.Maxa Borna 9, 50-204, Wrocław, Poland

    Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman

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Amelino-Camelia, G. (2000). Are We at the Dawn of Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology?. In: Kowalski-Glikman, J. (eds) Towards Quantum Gravity. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 541. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46634-7_1

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