No abstract

I show that it is possible to formulate the Relativity postulates in a way that does not lead to inconsistencies in the case of space-times whose short-distance structure is governed by an observer-independent length scale. The consistency of these postulates proves incorrect the expectation that modifications of the rules of kinematics involving the Planck length would necessarily require the introduction of a preferred class of inertial observers. In particular, it is possible for every inertial observer to agree on physical laws supporting deformed dispersion relations of the type E 2 − c 2 p 2 − c 4 m 2 + f (E, p, m; L p ) = 0, at least for certain types of f .

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 at the Planck scale. My main focus is on phenomenological programs that affect the directions taken by studies of quantum-spacetime theories.

We propose a deepening of the relativity principle according to which the invariant arena for nonquantum physics is a phase space rather than spacetime. Descriptions of particles propagating and interacting in spacetimes are constructed by observers, but different observers, separated from each other by translations, construct different spacetime projections from the invariant phase space. Nonetheless, all observers agree that interactions are local in the spacetime coordinates constructed by observers local to them. This framework, in which absolute locality is replaced by relative locality, results from deforming energy-momentum space, just as the passage from absolute to relative simultaneity results from deforming the linear addition of velocities. Different aspects of energy-momentum space geometry, such as its curvature, torsion and nonmetricity, are reflected in different kinds of deformations of the energy-momentum conservation laws. These are in principle all measurable by appropriate experiments. We also discuss a natural set of physical hypotheses which singles out the cases of energy-momentum space with a metric compatible connection and constant curvature