ESA Voyage 2050 white paper -- GrailQuest: hunting for Atoms of Space and Time hidden in the wrinkle of Space-Time

Burderi, L.; Sanna, A.; Salvo, T. Di; Amati, L.; Amelino-Camelia, G.; Branchesi, M.; Capozziello, Salvatore; Coccia, E.; Colpi, M.; Costa, E.; Bernardis, P. de; Laurentis, Mariafelicia De; Valle, M. Della; Falcke, H.; Feroci, M.; Fiore, F.; Frontera, F.; Gambino, A. F.; Ghisellini, G.; Hurley, K.; Iaria, R.; Kataria, D. O.; Labanti, C.; Lodato, Giuseppe; Negri, B.; Papitto, A.; Piran, Tsvi; Riggio, A.; Rovelli, Carlo; Santangelo, A.; Vidotto, Francesca; Zane, S.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.1911.02154

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Of course, the validity of the work in Refs. [11,12,13] still needs confirmation through future observations of gamma-rays from the Fermi telescope or next generation of satellites (e.g., the incoming GrailQuest [80,81]), and the interpretation of such light speed variance also needs to be continuously subject to further scrutiny.…”

Section: Qgγmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light speed variation with brane/string-inspired space-time foam

2021

Results in Physics

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Recently a series of studies on high energy gamma-ray burst (GRB) photons suggest a light speed variation with linear energy dependence at the Lorentz violation scale of 3.6 × 10 17 GeV, with subluminal propagation of high energy photons in cosmological space. We propose stringy space-time foam as a possible interpretation for this light speed variation. In such a string-inspired scenario, bosonic photon open-string travels in vacuo at an infraluminal speed with an energy dependence suppressed by a single power of the string mass scale, due to the foamy structure of space-time at small scales, as described by D-brane objects in string theory. We present a derivation of this deformed propagation speed of the photon field in the infrared (IR) regime. We show that the light speed variation, revealed in the previous studies on GRBs time-delay data, can be well described within such a string approach towards space-time foam. We also derive the value of the effective quantum-gravity mass in this framework, and give a qualitative study on the theory-dependent coefficients. We comment that stringent constraints on Lorentz violation in the photon sector from complementary astrophysical observations can also be explained and understood in the space-time foam context.

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Section: Qgγmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light speed variation with brane/string-inspired space-time foam

2021

Results in Physics

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“…Loop quantum gravity that question the continuousness and smoothness of spacetime quantizing it into discrete energy levels like those observed in the classical quantum-mechanical systems to construct a complex geometric structure called spin networks (see, e.g., Rovelli [104] for reviews). In both proposed theories emerge a minimal length for physical space (and time), although with different and somewhat opposite theoretical approaches [105]. The minimal spatial and temporal scales associated to the quantization are in terms of standard units: l P ∼ hG/c 3 ∼ 10 −33 cm and t P ∼ hG/c 5 ∼ 10 −43 s for the Planck length and time, respectively.…”

Section: General Formulaementioning

confidence: 99%

Testing Fundamental Physics with Astrophysical Transients

Wei

2021

Preprint

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Explosive astrophysical transients at cosmological distances can be used to place precision tests of the basic assumptions of relativity theory, such as Lorentz invariance, the photon zero-mass hypothesis, and the weak equivalence principle (WEP). Signatures of Lorentz invariance violations (LIV) include vacuum dispersion and vacuum birefringence. Sensitive searches for LIV using astrophysical sources such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and pulsars are discussed. The most direct consequence of a nonzero photon rest mass is a frequency dependence in the velocity of light propagating in vacuum. A detailed representation of how to obtain a combined severe limit on the photon mass using fast radio bursts at different redshifts through the dispersion method is presented. The accuracy of the WEP has been well tested based on the Shapiro time delay of astrophysical messengers traveling through a gravitational field. Some caveats of Shapiro delay tests are discussed. In this article, we review and update the status of astrophysical tests of fundamental physics.

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“…For example, in vacuo dispersion of photons and neutrinos, or deviations of polarization over astronomical distances [1,14] [68-73]. The experimental detection of LIV and the energy scales in which LIVs might be detected could help to either refine quantum gravity theories by setting up appropriate mathematical constraints, or at least discard scenarios incompatible with the experimental data [68]. Detection (or not) of LIVs could help with lattice quantization in LQG, the time problem and the choice for privileged reference frames [8,32,74,75].…”

Section: Lorentz Invariance Violations (Liv) and Space-time Quantizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncertainty Principle and the Minimal Space-Time Length Element

Escors¹,

Kochan²

2022

Preprint

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Quantum gravity theories rely on a minimal measurable length for their formulations, which clashes with the classical formulation of the uncertainty principle and with Lorentz invariance from general relativity. These incompatibilities led to the development of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) from string theories and its various modifications. GUP and covariant formulations of the uncertainty principle are discussed, together with implications for space-time quantization.

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ESA Voyage 2050 white paper -- GrailQuest: hunting for Atoms of Space and Time hidden in the wrinkle of Space-Time

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

Light speed variation with brane/string-inspired space-time foam

Light speed variation with brane/string-inspired space-time foam

Testing Fundamental Physics with Astrophysical Transients

The Uncertainty Principle and the Minimal Space-Time Length Element

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