Many modern theories which try to unify gravity with the Standard Model of particle physics, as e.g. string theory, propose two key modifications to the commonly known physical theories:• the existence of additional space dimensions;• the existence of a minimal length distance or maximal resolution.While extra dimensions have received a wide coverage in publications over the last ten years (especially due to the prediction of micro black hole production at the LHC), the phenomenology of models with a minimal length is still less investigated. In a summer study project for bachelor students in 2010 we have explored some phenomenological implications of the potential existence of a minimal length. In this paper we review the idea and formalism of a quantum gravity induced minimal length in the generalised uncertainty principle framework as well as in the coherent state approach to noncommutative geometry. These approaches are effective models which can make modelindependent predictions for experiments and are ideally suited for phenomenological studies. Pedagogical examples are provided to grasp the effects of a quantum gravity induced minimal length. This article is intended for graduate students and nonspecialists interested in quantum gravity.

We study the behavior of cesium atoms confined in far-detuned laser traps and submitted to blue Sisyphus cooling. First, in a single focused yttrium aluminum garnet ͑YAG͒ beam, the atomic cloud has a rod shape with a 6-m transverse waist radius, a temperature of 2 K, and a transient density of 10 12 atoms/cm 3 . For this sample, we have not detected any influence of photon multiple scattering on the atomic temperature, in contrast to previous measurements in isotropic samples. Second, the YAG laser is used to produce a 29-m period hexagonal optical lattice in which we directly observe the localization of the atoms by absorption imaging. Equilibrium densities on the order of 10 13 atoms/cm 3 are achieved in this structure.

We describe a general algorithm for the computation of the remainder function for n-gluon scattering in multi-Regge kinematics for strongly coupled planar N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. This regime is accessible through the infrared physics of an auxiliary quantum integrable system describing strings in AdS 5 ×S 5 . Explicit formulas are presented for n = 6 and n = 7 external gluons. Our results are consistent with expectations from perturbative gauge theory. This paper comprises the technical details for the results announced in [1].